PUEBLO — Everyone has heard the saying. It might be a cliché, but it’s true. Defense wins championships. It certainly did Saturday night when the Sedgwick County Cougars defeated Paonia 43-28.
The Cougars struggled early in the boys Class 2A state championship game. The Eagles led by 10 points at halftime after holding the Cougars to five points in the first quarter and five in the second.
“We just had to play like we knew how to play,” said Sedgwick County’s Justin Tjaden, who scored a game-high 22 points. “We didn’t do that the first half.”
Most teams that score only 10 points in one half of a state championship game don’t win. Most don’t even come close. But most teams don’t come out of the break and hold their opponent to eight points for the entire second half.
“We were all pretty calm at halftime,” Cougars senior Keith Pocock said. “We knew what we were doing wrong and knew how to fix it. We went to a zone (defense) and started being aggressive (on Paonia’s Dave Carney).”
The Eagles were held to five points in the third quarter, and those came in the first few minutes. They closed the third quarter on the wrong side of a 14-0 run.
“We just knew we were going to win,” Tjaden said. “We didn’t really know how, or care how, but we just knew we were going to win. We just knew we’d come out with a win in the end.”
It didn’t get much better for the Eagles in the fourth quarter. They were held to one point most of the quarter before adding two points with two minutes left.
“I don’t know what hit us,” Eagles coach Steve Swartzendruber said. “We went cold and missed six free throws. We can’t do that in a championship game. Something hit us tonight. We had them where we wanted them, the tempo was ours, but we let it slip.
“We just panicked, I guess. We shouldn’t have. We had no reason to.”
The Cougars came into the state tournament as a No. 8 seed and shocked everyone but themselves when they upset reigning state champion and top-seeded Grand Valley.
“Obviously we didn’t have any pressure,” Pocock said. “We were the eight seed and no one expected us to win. We just came out and played basketball, and didn’t think about it.”
In only the school’s second year of existence, Sedgwick County managed to accomplish what some schools never achieve.
“It feels good. I’m speechless right now,” Tjaden said. “There’s nothing in the world that I can think of that feels as good as this.”
SEDGWICK COUNTY 43, PAONIA 28
Sedgwick County5 5 17 16 — 43
Paonia10 10 5 3 — 28
Sedgwick County — Kyle Pocock 0 0-1 0, Ebke 1 0-0 2, Rochlitz 1 1-2 4, Tjaden 9 4-6 22, Sanchez 2 0-0 5, Keith Pocock 1 2-2 5, Woltemath 1 0-0 3, Kantor 1 0-0 2. Totals 16 7-11 43.
Paonia — Blair 2 0-0 4, Straub 0 2-2 2, Legg 3 1-1 7, Bradley 1 1-2 3, Carney 3 0-6 6, Todd 2 2-2 6. Totals 11 6-13 28.
3-point goals — Rochlitz, Sanchez, Keith Pocock, Woltemath. Total fouls — Sedgwick County 14, Paonia 14. Fouled out — none. Technicals — None.
All-tournament team: 2A boys
Logan Deputy, Jr., Calhan
Keith Pocock, Sr., Sedgwick County
Justin Tjaden, Jr., Sedgwick County
Brad Todd, Sr., Paonia
David Carney, Sr., Paonia
MVP: Justin Tjaden
