On a night of festivities aplenty, including Senior Night and Buckets for Bacon, the Tigers had a wonderful opportunity to snap a four-game losing streak against the powerful Jaguars of BV West, carrying a 12-7 record into the night. The Jaguars had kicked off EKL play Jan. 2 with a 57-45 home win over BV with the rematch coming on the last night of the regular season. Not an empty seat was in sight, and the crowd roared the Tigers on — but the Jaguars were too powerful and shook off several Tiger rallies to win big, 54-38.
The teams went low tempo in the first quarter with just 15 points between both teams. Both defenses dominated the frame, and the Tigers kept the intense Jaguar offense to a minimum. The Jaguars won the quarter, 9-6.
In the second quarter, however, it started getting problematic for the Tigers. BV West center senior Blaise Gammon, standing at 6’8”, began tearing the BV defense apart down low, scoring 6 points in the frame. The only field goals from the Tigers all quarter were two three-pointers from guard sophomore Cade Green. The Jaguars had a comfortable 27-15 lead after halftime.
Instead of melting away, the Tigers came out of the locker room with a furious effort and slowly but steadily began chipping away at the Jaguars lead, on the back of a 10-point third quarter from point guard senior Jack Pagenkopf, the leading scorer on the night. A field goal from forward junior Joey Debay cut the lead to just 5 points with under two minutes to play, but it was the closest the Tigers would come all night to getting even. BV West pushed the lead back to eight, heading into the fourth quarter at 41-33.
The game was still in reach, but the Tigers began forcing shots while BV West began throwing theirs down. Gammon dunked twice to put an exclamation point on the game, which had quickly gotten back out of reach after the Tigers could only manage 5 fourth-quarter points. The lead mounted to 16 as the final substitutions of the game were made, and it would stay that way until the buzzer sounded with the Jaguars taking a 54-38 victory.
The season is not over for the Tigers. All teams in 6A qualify for the postseason, and the Tigers will be on the road at Olathe North on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. Four quarters will decide whether the season halts or lives for another night.
