The Wellington seventh grade boys ended the 2009-10 season with a hard loss in the Pioneer League Tournament.
The Knights earned the No. 4 seed in the tournament and played the Mulvane Wildcats Saturday in El Dorado. Wellington came in hot on a two-game winning streak with wins over El Dorado and Ark City.
Mulvane went to a box-and-one defense which gave the Knights fits.
Mulvane jumped out to an early lead, but the Knights fought back and got the halftime score to 14-10, Mulvane.
Wellington came out hot in the third quarter and gained a one-point lead. From there the game went back and forth till the end.
The game was tied at 22-all with three seconds left.
Mulvane had the ball and was inbounding it under its own basket.
The Wildcats got the ball in and went up for a shot and a foul was called.
"That's all I will say about the foul so I don't get in trouble," said Luke Smith, seventh grade boys coach. Mulvane went to the line with no time on the clock, hit one out of two free throws and won the game by one, 23-22.
"The boys were heartbroken," Smith said. "They had worked so hard all year for this tournament and to have it decided like that really hurt.
"But we learned a valuable lesson from this — never leave a game in the hands of someone else."
Smith said Wellington missed a lot of early free throws and had some shaky turnovers against Mulvane's box and one defense.
"This is a great group of young men and will do great things for Wellington basketball over the next five years," Smith said. "I predict a league championship for them as eighth graders."
Wellington, Kan. —
