The Veritas Christian boys varsity basketball team competed in the 2A state tournament in Wichita in the first week of March.
Game Recaps
Out of the gate the team faced tough competition, drawing Sunrise Christian Academy for the first game. Even though Sunrise was a usual top 50 team in the country, Veritas didn’t back down and played with toughness and perseverance. Despite the effort, Sunrise was the better team and won the first game 77-38. Two days later, Veritas played a morning game against Saint Mary's Academy, and looked tired from the start. They struggled to score on offense despite holding Saint Mary’s to the lowest score out of their three matchups this season. Saint Mary’s took the game 55-24. The final match was held on the same day. This game against Flint Hills Christian was a close one all the way to the end. Down by two with five seconds left, Max McCleary heaved a half court shot which barely rimmed out as time expired, final score 63-61 Flint Hills.
Stories and Stats
Seniors Joshua Nadvornik, Vaughn Heck, Jordan Stewart, and Hunter Welch all played in their last games for Veritas. Aside from the seniors, another story that played out during the weekend was the return of sophomore point guard Justice Alvarez, who had missed the second half of the season due to a foot injury. Another bright spot was sophomore Max McCleary. Entering the tournament with a total of seventeen points, he almost doubled his previous total, adding twelve in just 3 games, and looked confident despite never having played in a state basketball tournament prior to this season. Junior Abel Ney continued to produce on offense during the tournament, averaging 9.3 points per game (including a 20 point game against Flint Hills). Gavin Oberzan, the Eagles’ defensive MVP, finished the tournament with an impressive ten blocks.
Just like the regular season, turnovers severely plagued the Eagles. They averaged 20 turnovers per game during the tournament, which gave the opponent a lot of free points. Most of these struggles were due to the lack of a real point guard. One thing they did well was rebound, which would certainly have kept them in games if they hadn’t given the ball away as much as they did. But rebounding became a strong suit of the Eagles towards the end of the year, which is something that will hopefully carry over into the next season.
Results
With this being the first state tournament that most of the team had played in (only Nadvornik and Oberzan had played in the tournament last year), there is room for improvement. Ultimately it was good for the boys to get tournament experience and continue to find what they need to improve on during the offseason as they look forward to next season. They are ready to put in the work over the summer and come back better than ever for the next season of Veritas basketball.