By Christopher Tenpenny
The Harrisonville Wildcats took senior night to another level, as they honored 10 seniors before their 67-37 blowout victory over rival Pleasant Hill on Dec. 10.
With COVID-19 keeping the future uncertain, high school sports are having their senior nights earlier to make sure the athletes get recognized. The Wildcats could have two different lineups with their 10 seniors. Harrisonville head coach Jeff Langrehr, whose son Brooks is also a senior, enjoyed seeing his players get recognized.
“It was special,” Langrehr said. “Usually, the senior night is at the end because you know it’s the end, but this year you never know when it could end. I didn’t quite have a big of lump in my throat as I sometimes do because I know we still have a lot of season left to play, but it was still nice to recognize those kids.”
After the pregame festivities, it was time to play basketball and the Wildcats came out on fire. They opened the game with a 15-0 run. Pleasant Hill didn’t score their first basket until after four minutes had passed in the quarter. The Wildcats were getting up and down the court in transition and finding the open man for the shot.
“It was nice to see the ball moving and the energy gained from it,” Langrehr said. “There was a lot of excitement from the bench and everybody loves to see other guys making shots. It was cool night.”
After leading 20-9 at the end of the first quarter, the Wildcats scored 30 points in the second quarter alone. They went into halftime up 50-24.
The Wildcats shot 56 percent from both the field and behind the three-point line. Eight of the 10 players who scored for Harrisonville shot 40 percent or better. Senior Kobe Norris thinks the depth of shooters his team has really makes it difficult for other teams.
“Usually see teams that only have two or three guys that can shoot,” Norris said. “We came out with everyone firing on all cylinders and everyone was wet. It was a great night.”
The Wildcats expanded their lead to 64-32 at the end of the third quarter and had a running clock for the entire fourth quarter. They beat their rival, Pleasant Hill, by 30 points.
While the offense was able to put up a lot of points, the defense was able to limit Pleasant Hill’s open looks.
“We executed what we wanted to for the most part,” Langrehr said. “We were nervous about not fronting their post players because Pleasant Hill has a lot of good shooters, too. The postmen do a good job of kicking out to their shooters, so we didn’t want them to enter it into the post.”
Leading the way offensively for the Wildcats was senior Brooks Langrehr with 18 points. Langrehr was battling an ankle sprain that was potentially going to keep him out of the game, but he was able to tape the ankle up so that he could play on senior night.
Norris added 13 points and six assists including a buzzer beater at the end of the third quarter. Senior James Tieman had 11 and was 3-4 from behind the three-point line.
