Friday night at Sabetha, the Royal Valley and Marysville boys advanced to the 3A Sub-State championship game with convincing victories. 

Marysville 45, Pleasant Ridge 33

The first game was pretty ugly as neither team found much offensive rhythm or firepower and struggled to find much energy or flow to the game. Yet, after a 12-2 start, Marysville led all night on way to a 12th straight win. The Bulldogs hit four treys in the first half and played great defense to lead 21-12 at halftime but struggled to close the door and finish the game with 10 missed free throws in the  fourth quarter alone and no triples in the second half. 

Pleasant Ridge hung around just enough and pulled within five points once in the fourth quarter, but missed several possessions to make it a one-score game. The Rams were plagued by 23 turnovers and no player scored more than six points before the NEKL champs ended their season at 14-6.  

Marysville was balanced with Ben Kirkland having 11 points, Gavin Pieschl hitting five late free throws to post 10 points and Bryan O'Neil adding  8 while Jackson Rader chipped in 7. Marysville is now 18-3 on the season and will play Royal Valley Saturday at 5 PM for a trip to advance to state. 

Royal Valley 52, Jeff West 28

Despite the first two meetings being won by Royal Valley by just two points each, including an overtime, this game was over early in the third period as the Panthers cruised to the win. Royal Valley started the game on a 9-0 run, but Jeff West answered with their best basketball of the night and scored 12 straight points to take the lead. Nahcs Wahwassuck hit a trey just before halftime to give the Panthers a 23-16 advantage before a dominating 29-12 second half. 

Brady Klotz scored 11 of his 19 points during a 15-6 third quarter and KJ Miller posted 12 points and the Panthers pounded the basketball inside and got a lot of easy buckets in the second half. Wahwassuck added 13 points and Jake Kelly chipped in 7 as both teams cleared their bench with the got decided early in the final frame. 

Royal Valley is now 19-3 on the season while Jeff West ended their season at 8-11. The Tigers had 10 seniors, including Josh Broxterman who scored a team high 11 points in the loss while Garrett Athon and Brennan Shelman added seven each.