WINTERS – A two-point third quarter, and 22 turnovers, were too much for the May Tigers to overcome as their basketball season ended at the hands of the Knox City Greyhounds, 50-43, Wednesday night in Region II-A area playoff action.
May and Knox City were tied at 25 at halftime and neither team scored for the first 4:16 of the third quarter. Sam Barnard finally scored for Knox City and Kaysen King answered for May just 18 seconds later. But the Tigers failed to score again the rest of the period, while Knox City tacked on six points to open a 33-27 lead heading to the fourth quarter.
“Two points in the third quarter, you’re not supposed to win if you do that,” said May head coach Steve Howard. “We didn’t make the shots when it counted, they made the shots and we didn’t. We let them stretch that lead out and could never catch back up.”
Rory Bustamante led May with 20 points trailed by Brian Kunkel with 10, Chris Flenniken with five, Luke McKenzie with four, and King and Bryson Guerrero with two points apiece.
Knox City received 15 points from Tres Fausto, 10 from Austin Hacker, eight from Barnard, and six points from Anthony Hernandez.
The Tigers’ 22 turnovers were more than twice as many as they forced, as Knox City coughed up the ball just 10 times. May committed 14 turnovers in the second half alone.
“We played two games in three days and at the end you could see they had the fresh legs,” Howard said. “They didn’t have to play a game because they were the district winner.”
May finished the season with a 12-5 record.
“Our first game wasn’t until Dec. 27 but I think they’ve come a long way,” Howard said. “They play their hearts out every game and it shows. They never give up.”
Knox City (17-6) will face No. 15 Eula (18-9) in the regional quarterfinals.
