Dodge City, KS

Opening round of the class 1A Boys state basketball tournament got underway Wednesday evening at the United Wireless Arena and saw the #6 seed Frankfort Wildcats face off with the #3 seed St. John-Hudson Tigers. The Tigers would use their quickness and size to come away with the win 59-38 and make the semi final round for the seventh time in the last eight years at the state tournament.

St. John-Hudson would control the opening tip and then control the rest of the game, jumping out early on Frankfort, allowing just one field goal for the Wildcats, and took the lead of 14-4 at the end of the first frame. In the second it was much of the same for the Tigers, outscoring Frankfort 17-5 to push their lead up to 31-9 at halftime. The Tigers were sparked with eleven of their seventeen points in the stanza off the bench.

In the third, Wildcat coach Nick Anderson switched to a full court defense and the switch paid dividends for Frankfort. The Wildcats forced seven turnovers on St. John-Hudson outscored the Tigers 10-9 in the frame led by Senior Garret Dalinghaus who had four in the quarter, but still trailed 40-19 heading to the fourth. Frankfort would find themselves down by as many as thirty in the frame however the Wildcats battled down the stretch until the final whistle as St. John-Hudson moves on to the semi final with a 59-38 victory.

Frankfort (20-7) sees their season come to a close, but not before making it to the state tournament for the first time since 2012. The Wildcats will lose Seniors Garret Dalinghaus and Cade Schreiner to graduation, but bring back a solid core for next season as Frankfort will look to use this experience as a building block heading into next year.

SCORING – G. Cornelison – 9, G. Dalinghaus 7, E. Armstrong 6, Z. Brandt 5, S. Gros 4, A. Gerstner 3, C. Schreiner 2, C. Rogers 2

Farmers State Bank in Onaga “Player To Bank On” - Senior Garret Dalinghaus, one of two senior leaders on this team and leading scorer on the year. He finished his senior campaign with seven points while fouling out with 6:00 left in the ball game