The Carthage Tiger basketball team fought hard for three games during the 50th annual Ralph Miller Classic in Chanute last week.
Two of the three games went into overtime, including an 80-72 double overtime win in the first game against state-ranked Shawnee Mission South. Justin Ray was electric from behind the 3-point line with six makes and led the Tigers with 24 points. Max Templeman added 20 points followed by Clay Kinder with 18 points. Joel Pugh added 12 points and Caden Kabance finished with 6 points.
Game two was another thriller as the Tigers faced the number one ranked team in Class 5 Andover Central. A 15-7 overtime run by Carthage sent the Tigers to the championship game. Templeman paced the Tigers with 19 points and Kinder added 17 points. Pugh finished with 10 points, Ray added 7, Kabance finished with 5 and Tyler Willis added 4 points.
In the championship game the Tigers played evenly with another state ranked team in Bishop Miege and were only down by 2 points with 3:45 left in the third quarter. A 26-11 run by Bishop in that third quarter proved to be too much for Carthage to overcome in the 77-57 loss.
“Bishop Miege and Christian Bowen-Webb caught fire the last 3 minutes of the of the quarter and stretched the game out,” said Carthage Coach Nathan Morris.
“Our boys had played another full game in terms of back to back overtime games. I think they hit a wall physically and mentally during that stretch. As frustrating as it is to let that game stretch out to 20 points, our group will look back to see that we played exceptional for three plus games,” added Morris.
Pugh led the Tigers with 23 points, including six, 3-pointers. Templeman added 16 points followed by Kinder with 11 points while Ray added 5 points and Kabance chipped in with 2.
Max Templeman, Justin Ray and Clay Kinder were all named to the All-Tournament team.
The Tigers, now 14-3 on the year, face Nevada at home Thursday, Jan. 27.
