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Unbeaten Central Plains downs Panthers, 75-36

There are several reasons the Central Plains Oilers are unbeaten and ranked first in Class 1A, and they were all on display in their 75-36 win over the Concordia Panthers Saturday in the Concordia Junior-Senior High School gymnasium.
Fundamentally sound on both ends of the floor, the Oilers are balanced offensively, scoring inside and outside, and play stingy defense.
The win over Conordia was the 41st straight for Central Plains, which is now 15-0 this season.
Central Plains has not lost since the 2017 Class 2A state championship game, and went 26-0 on its way to winning the state title last season.
“By a long ways,” Concordia coach Michael Roe said of the Oilers being the most fundamentally sound team the Panthers have faced this season, “And I think everybody kind of sleeps on their athleticism, I know I did. They are a very athletic team. And they work hard all of the time. That is something you don’t see a lot of anymore in high school basketball is five guys working hard all of the time. Talking all of the time.”
A jumper by Dyelan Reed gave Concordia a quick lead in the game.
Starting with a three-point shot by Devin Ryan, the Oilers scored nine points in less than two minutes to go up 9-2. They would not trail again.
Wyatt Trost hit from 15 feet, and the Panthers trailed just 9-4.
Central Plains then went on a 10-4 run to go up 19-8.
Trost scored on a drive to close the gap to 19-10.
A three by Ryan with one second remaining in the first quarter gave Central Plains a 22-10 advantage.
Ryan hit five threes on his way to scoring 20 points.
Concordia (4-11) got a jumper by Corben Monzon early in the second quarter to make it a 22-12 game.
A three by Ryan and a basket by Brett Liebl pushed Central Plains’ lead to 2-12.
Chas Carlgren drove to the basket and scored for Concordia.
The Oilers tossed in 12 unanswered points, and led 39-14.
A basket by Reed left the Panthers trailing 39-16 at halftime.
“I thought some of the shots we took were good ones, we just didn’t hit them,” Roe said, “And when you shoot a poor percentage against a very solid ball club there is nothing worse than not being able to answer a score from the other team. I didn’t think we hustled very hard as a team and communicated very well the first half.”
The two teams traded baskets over the final three minutes of the second half.
A three by Reed made it 45-25 with five minutes remaining in the third quarter.
Reed led Concordia with 15 points.
“I thought we competed well in the third quarter. I thought we ran out sets okay and moved the ball well. So I thought from an offensive standpoint we did okay. But defensively we still had cases where we didn’t match up in transition. That is just something we have to get better at,” Roe said.
Central Plains scored 10 straight points to go up 55-25.
The Oilers led 60-30 going into the fourth quarter.
With the 30-point spread there was a running clock in the final period.
Central Plains tossed in 15 points to six for the Panthers.
Trost joined Reed in double figures for Concordia with 12 points.
Liebl led Central Plains with 20 points. Alex Hickel added 18 points.
The Panthers travel to Riley County Tuesday night for their final  road game of the regular season.
“They (Riley County) are a good ball club,” Roe said, “It is going to be a challenging end to the year.”

CENTRAL PLAINS (75)
Hickel 8-2-0 18, Oeser 1-0-0 2, Menges 4-0-2 8, Bieberle 2-0-0 4, Ryan 6-3-2 20, Liebl 9-3-0 21, Thompson 1-0-0 2. Totals: 31-8-4 75.
CONCORDIA (36)
Williams 0-0-1 0, Vignery 0-0-1 0, Trost 6-0-1 12, Monzon 1-0-2 2, Carlgren 3-0-3 7, Reed 7-0-0 15, Rosenbaum 0-0-1 0, Parker 0-0-1 1. Totals: 17-0-13 36.

 

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Concordia, KS 66901