CHANUTE — Securing their second straight SEK League title, the Chanute Blue Comets boys ended the regular season on Thursday with a dominant, 72-29, win over the Parsons Vikings.
Chanute held Parsons to 13 points in the first half.
“That’s all we talked about was to give them no hope,” Chanute head coach Devon Crabtree said. “We wanted them to think it was going to be a long three quarters. That was a classic trap game. Parsons plays hard and has had some quality wins recently. They’re playing better, even in some of their losses. So it was a priority to jump on them early.”
Thursday’s win also locked up a league crown for the Blue Comets.
“On paper, they came in starting the season as one of the favorites to win the league title,” Parsons head coach Anthony Houk said. “The last few games they’ve played, they’ve been red hot and proved it. They were a great team to start the season. Now they’re getting hot at the right time. They can really make some noise, especially when those points are going up three at a time.”
Chanute buried 15 3-pointers in Thursday’s win.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” Crabtree said. “Some days in practice, I think we can be a team that doesn’t shoot twos. But there’s also nights where the shots don’t fall and we have to be creative. So it was nice to see the shots falling.”
Warrick Olson paced the Blue Comets with 22 points, including six triples.
“He’s just shooting the three at a high percentage and his teammates do a great job finding him,” Crabtree said. “We’re running stuff to get him open looks and the execution is there. The time he spends working in the gym shows.”
DeShawn Pleasant led Parsons with seven points while Jason Shaw added six.
Thursday’s loss marked the end of a difficult season for the Vikings, who finished the year with a 4-19 overall record and missed a berth to the postseason.
“Some people might look at our record and think that it was a miserable experience,” Houk said. “That was not the case. This was a fun group of guys to be with every single day. They practiced well. It just wasn’t our year for the record books.”
While Parsons struggled early, the Vikings found success late in the year, winning three of their last six games including a stunner over Coffeyville on Senior Night.
“It was a big testament to the kids we had,” Houk said. “We didn’t have a group that put up a lot of wins. But we had a group that refused to quit. That’s what I love about them. They just kept fighting.”
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Houk aims to improve the Vikings’ outlook heading into the 202627 campaign.
“There was so much we needed to work on this year as a whole that we couldn’t get to everything,” Houk said. “Teams pressed us like crazy to start the year and we got better at handling that. We got better on the boards as the year went on. We’ve got to polish up our team defense and many areas of the game. We’ll continue to grow our basketball IQ. That’s where I have to identify the areas to practice.”
