Bison boys just miss trip to state

Steve Kodad/McCook Daily Gazette McCook guard Connor Larson (24) pulls up and looks to shoot against an Adams Central defender in the Class B-5 District Tournament finals at Kearney High School last Tuesday. Larson, a junior, will be the lone starter returning for the Bison next season.

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The Bison lost a 54-51 decision to Adams Central Tuesday, March 2, in the Class B-5 District Tournament championship game at the Kearney High School gym. Zach Hunt of Adams Central hit a long 3-point shot with one second remaining for the winning margin.

Adams Central advances to the Class B state tournament in Lincoln March 11-13. The Patriots take a 20-3 record to state.

In Tuesday night's district final, McCook fell behind by as many as seven points before rallying in the final period to tie the score before Hunt's big shot.

McCook head coach Tim Garcia said in a post-game interview Tuesday night that his team played perhaps its best game of the year in the district final.

"I talked about peaking all season long, and I think if you look top to bottom, getting the entire team involved, everyone playing their roles, I think we played one of our best basketball games of the season right here tonight," Garcia said. "We came out of the chute firing like a gun, hitting everything. We matched (Adams Central) with their intensity, we matched them with their transition, we matched them point-for-point in the first quarter, something that I don't think anyone in this gym thought was going to happen. And then what we did is, we settled into our offense, we settled into our defense. We did what we had to do to put ourselves in position to win the ball game. and that's exactly what we did.

"I think we peaked at the right moment. I think we played our best basketball here tonight and I could not be more proud of the kids and the way that they performed."

McCook: 15-11 season record

The Bison ended the year with a 15-11 record. Coach Garcia's squad finished second in the Topside Tip-off Tournament in Goodland, Kan., in early December, along with a third-place finish at the Orange and Black Classic Tournament in Colby, Kan., in mid-January.

McCook was 11-4 after a 36-27 win over Kansas Class 6A's Wichita South in the Colby, Kan., tournament Jan. 21. The Bison then won just four of their last 11 games.

Peaks and valleys

McCook had a season-best six-game win streak and a worst four-game losing skid.

"Basketball's peaks and valleys," he said. "We had our peaks and we had our valleys. Did we lose some games that I thought we should have won? Absolutely. Did we win some game that maybe we didn't plan on winning, or we thought were going to be toss-ups? Yeah, we won a couple of toss-ups along the way as well.

"To me it's an educational process. First and foremost, I'm a teacher, and my staff, we're teachers. The basketball court, the gymnasium is a classroom. If I were grading my students out right now for this season based on improvement and based on scores and based on statistics, I think we definitely improved through the season and again, I couldn't be proud of the way our kids are playing basketball at the end of the year."

Garcia had a senior-laden varsity roster featuring 6-6 center Dustin Parde and 6-4 forward Mark Nichols, plus Tye Smith and Ethan Hardin in the starting lineup. Other seniors on the squad included Nate Crick, AJ Huffman, Spencer Gillen and Donovan DeHarty.

"They are a lot of fun to coach. We're really going to miss our seniors," Garcia said. "We're going to miss their leadership, we're going to miss their dedication and determination. We're going to miss their attitudes, the fact that they just came to practice and worked -- blue-collar kids that just came to practice and worked hard. They set great examples for our underclassmen.

"In the locker room (Tuesday) the first thing I did was apologize to our seniors, because we just didn't quite get it done. I told our underclassmen, each and every one of them, remember this feeling, because this is the feeling that has to motivate you in the off-season, has to motivate you during the summer, has to motivate you the first day of practice (next winter), it has to motivate you in December, in next January, next February, when the season's getting long and tedious, this feeling right here. You have to remember this feeling and you have to continue to improve and do your best so you don't have to experience this feeling again."

One starter back

Next year's Bison edition will be built around guard Connor Larson. The 6-0 junior will be a three-year starter. Larson led the Bison in assists (122) and steals (61) this past season and was third in scoring with an average of 10.7 points per game. He scored one less point (278-277) than Parde for the season.

Nichols averages 12.1 points per game to lead McCook. The 6-4 senior also topped the team in rebounds with an average of 7.3 boards per contest. Parde, a 6-6 senior, led the Bison in blocked shots (44), and he was second in rebounds with 180, just 10 less than Nichols. Parde also topped the team with 71 percent free-throw shooting (50 for 70).

Garcia pointed out that this year's Bison edition started with minimal varsity experience.

"I think that's what a lot of people still forget to this day, is we had one true varsity player returning (Connor Larson)," he said. "We had Mark and Dustin that came in with a little bit of varsity experience (end of the 2008-09 season). We built from new this year. These kids, from day one to right now, are night and day in the improvement that they made."

The McCook said he has a "nice group of underclassmen" on the team, and he expects the 2010-11 Bison squad to be battling for a district championship again next season.

Patriots schedule

Adams Central played a predominantly Class C schedule this season. The Patriots played 15 Class C-1 and C-2 opponents (all three losses were to Class C teams) and seven Class B foes (7-0). McCook was the only Class B opponent for the Patriots that finished with a winning record.