| Summit
elementary teams charge into action
With the completion of the regular season for Summit Academy’s high school boys and girls teams, Summit’s elementary teams have charged into action in the past couple of weeks, with games for both the boys and the girls, and an opening game involving both girls and boys on the Summit team due to player absences. In the opening game of the season, a mix of sixth grader Mary Shears, 5th graders Beau Schlader and Rachel Wemhoff, fourth graders Austin Chmelik and Derek Nuxoll, and 3rd grader Dan Wemhoff traveled to Nezperce where they battled hard but lost out in the end 32 to 26. Following that game, the boys team with Josh Frei and Dylan Prigge back in action, along with additional 3rd graders Cody Killmar and Nick Shears played games with CV, winning 44 to 10, a second game away against CV, winning again 41 to 26, then losing a tough rematch with Nezperce 42 to 41, and reversing the decision in their next game, with a 49 to 30 win over Kamiah in a contest at home. Meanwhile, the girl’s team, after the fist mixed match with Nezperce, and now in addition to Shears and Wemhoff, adding 6th grader Liz Pineda, and 4th and 3rd graders Jamie Chmelik, Brandee Seubert, Rachel Uhlenkott, Nicole Frei, Savanah Prigge, and Savannah Kuther, lost their first all-girl’s game to CV 29 to 23, a return match with CV won by the Patriots 20 to 15, a loss by a score of 24 to 14 to Kamiah, and a win over a Grangeville team, score unavailable. Both teams play away twice this week, traveling to Highland on Tuesday, then playing Prairie at the Middle School gym this Thursday. Summit boys place fourth in tournament Traveling to Missoula for the second year to compete in the season-ending invitational tourney there, Summit Academy’s boys moved out of the eight-team group over the tourney to finish fourth in the very competitive tourney. Highlights of the tourney included a tough first round victory over a tall Gillette, Wyoming team, with the local Patriots falling behind 9 to 0 in the first, only to come roaring back behind Shane Wemhoff’s 25 points to down the tall Gillette’s 58 to 33. Matched with Missoula Thunder the next day, last year’s tourney champs, the Patriots moved out to a 20 – 17 lead in the second quarter, but fell to the taller team with a strong bench 76 to 68 at the end. Summit’s seven player squad was led in this game with 28 point outbursts from Wemhoff and Dylan Greene, with the rest of the team unable to connect on a high percentage of their shots. The next day’s opponent found the Patriots up against eventual champs Gallitin’s Cougars, a team Summit defeated by one point a year ago in the semi-finals of the JV division. Playing almost the same team, the Patriots matched basket for basket early in the game, with neither team able to stop the other from scoring, but the fast pace and stronger bench of the Cougars resulted finally in a loss for the local team, 78 to 67. Greene led the Patriot cause in this game with 28 points, followed by Wemhoff with 19, and Brandon Rehder playing his best game of the year with 17. The final game on the final day for the Patriots matched Summit against a team from the Bitterroot Valley, in a contest for 3rd place, but the Patriots suffered their only bad half of the tourney, dropping behind 34 to 17 at the half. A zone press the 2nd half helped Summit get back into the game, outscoring their opponents by one point in the second half, but not nearly enough to avoid the eventual 72 to 56 loss, dropping the Patriots into fourth place for the tourney. Greene and Wemhoff both averaged over 20 points a game for the tourney, with Rehder’s 14 points in the final game giving him his best two game series of the year. Mark Uhlenkott set a personal record rebounding in the last game, while sophs Stephen Spencer and Chris Hattrup, and frosh Jacob Uhlenkott played hard all through the tourney, but were able to connect on only a few goal attempts. The seven boys making the trip were without the services of Ben and Alex Kuther who were unable to make the trip, and so got in extended playing time which caused fatigue to be a factor in the final game of the tourney. Dylan Greene was selected to the tourney all-star team, while Shane Wemhoff missed out only because the tourney rules which allowed two from each of the first three teams finishing in the tourney, allowed only one from the fourth, and three other at-large members from the four teams not finishing in the top four. The tourney also featured a JV and a girl’s tourney, with five teams competing in each. Last year, with all frosh and sophs, Summit upset the number one seed in the semi-finals, and lost barely to Missoula in the finals to finish 2nd. With no seniors on the team, the Patriots are looking forward to an even better and more challenging season in the year to come! The team would like to thank all who supported us this year, and especially Dennis Greene and Chuck Uhlenkott for providing transportation to the final tourney. |
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