Kingman coach Steve Bangert sent defender after defender against Nickerson High’s high-scoring guard Quintin Crandall.
The Eagles worked an effective box-and-one defense against Crandall, who still scored 31 points in Nickerson’s 60-46 Central Kansas League basketball victory Tuesday. Crandall converted 14 of 15 free throws while using his quickness to attack the basket.
Bangert worked in practice on the box-and-one with defenders Lyle Adelhardt and Mitchell Packard, who did a decent job slowing down Crandall, who opened with a trio of 3-point goals.
“The first quarter we did a poor job recognizing where Crandall was, but the second quarter we did better,” Bangert said. “He’s just a tough matchup. We knew from the first time we played them when Crandall and Austin Phillips combined for 42 points. We threw them off balance for a little while. Crandall is really hard to defend from a zone, so we knew we’d have to match up with him.”
Nickerson (7-13, 3-6 CKL) led 39-29 after three periods. The Panthers broke the game open with a 21-point fourth period fueled by accurate free throw shooting and good halfcourt execution when Kingman had to abandon its preferred zone defense.
Phillips hustled inside for 12 points and combined with Crandall for 43 points. Nickerson beat Kingman in their first meeting 55-44.
Nickerson coach Ryan Duft said only one team had played box-and-one against the Panthers, who worked man-to-man and zone offense against the defense. Duft said it was one of the Panthers’ best games of the season.
“Quintin got into a good offensive rhythm early in the game. Their defense took our best offensive player out of our offense, but we were able to run some man-to-man offense and some zone plays against it,” Duft said. “It got our other guys involved in working our offense.”
Phillips and Joey Stockinger each had assists in the fourth quarter as Nickerson put a game away, a rarity in a 7-13 season. Stockinger drew a pair of charging fouls to key the Panthers’ solid defense.
Nickerson will travel to second-seed Concordia (15-5) Tuesday in the Class 4A Buhler substate tournament. Returning 4A state qualifier Buhler (17-2) is top seeded and McPherson (14-5), last year’s 5A state champion, is third seed.
Mikabe Erdman led Kingman with 12 points and Mike Meng, Brandon Bradshaw, Zach Andersen and Braxton Bangert added six points apiece. Nickerson’s man-to-man defense converted several Kingman turnovers into transition baskets.
“Kingman likes to spread the floor and drive to the basket and we did a really nice job stopping them from turning the corner and getting to the basket,” Duft said. “We played pretty well defensively for the most part.”
Bangert was pleased with the overall effort, but would’ve liked more consistent energy.
“What hurt us was when we got some good shots and rebounds inside, we didn’t convert them,” he said. “We just didn’t manage to get close enough to make a run at them.”
Kingman (1-19, 0-9) will be the eighth seed and will play Conway Springs in the Class 3A Douglass substate Monday.
