Lancers Take on Blue Valley High in Sub-State Final

With a trip to the State tournament on the line the 19-2 Lancers take on the 8-13 Tigers of Blue Valley High in the East Gym. Head Coach Shawn Hair and the Lancers have not been to the state tournament since they placed 3rd in 2009. This is one of the eight sub-state final games being played in the 6A class with all the winners moving on to Wichita.

The Tigers are one of the biggest teams in the state of Kansas, starting four players that are 6’4” or taller. Their biggest player is 6’8”, 260 lb star big man Charlie Marquardt who averages 15 points per game and is the focal point of the Blue Valley offense. Another couple of players to look out for the Tigers are 6’4” forward Mitch Sundquist and 6’6’ forward Connor Hurst who both average around 8 points per game.

Blue Valley has played very competitive games all year with 10 of their 13 losses being by 6 points or less. On Wednesday night against Shawnee Mission Northwest they came back from down 10 points at halftime to win by 1 to advance to play the Lancers in the sub-state final.

East had an easier time in their first sub-state game against Wyandotte winning by 31 points. Sophomore Lucas Jones is coming off a monster game having a double-double, scoring 28 points and bringing in 13 rebounds. He also blocked five shots. The other two leading scorers were seniors Vance Wentz who had 19 points and Zach Schneider who had 16 points and 14 rebound. The three known as the Lancers ‘big three’ have led East all year in almost every statistical category and need to carry the team going forward into state.

The Tigers are surprising bigger than the Lancers, who are used to having a size advantage with Schneider and Jones who are both at least 6’6”.

“To be successful we have to use our athleticism and hopefully get the tempo up,” Hair said.

East will want to push the ball up the court in transition and get easy baskets off turnovers. The 1-2-2 press will most likely be brought out by Hair to use Connor Knabe’s athleticism, along with the 2-3 zone the Lancers have played so well causing opposing offenses a lot of trouble.

This will be the last time that the nine Lancer seniors will ever take the floor at home, and neither team wants their season to end so look for both squads to put everything on the line to get to Wichita.