Tucker Bradley/BigB Flicks
Baldwin players celebrate after the clock hits zero in the Bulldogs’ 50-48 victory over Pratt in a 4A state quarterfinals boys basketball game on March 11 at Friends University in Wichita.
On this year’s Baldwin boys basketball squad, there are eight seniors on the roster who don’t want their final high school seasons to end. Of those seniors, Cooper Carr, Leo Schoenberger and Colton Collum are three players who have also been starters for each season of the Bulldogs’ program-record run of four straight state appearances.
But with all the experience on the court, it ended up being a sophomore, one playing on the varsity team for the first team starting this season, who ended up delivering the victory-sealing play for the Bulldogs in a 50-48 win over Pratt during the 4A state quarterfinals on March 11 at Friends University in Wichita.
Sophomore Jackson Wheeler blocked Pratt’s junior guard Hudson Titus on a layup attempt as the latter drove to the basket looking for the go-ahead bucket with less than five seconds to go in the game. Wheeler’s block sent the ball bouncing off Titus after he ended up on the ground with much of his body lying out of bounds along the baseline.
Baldwin head coach Donald Blanchat proved almost prophetic with his comments following his team’s similarly too-close-for-comfort win over Paola in the sub-state finals on March 11 at Baldwin Junior High School.
“(Wheeler) wasn’t even one of the 12 last year, but he had a tremendous summer and he’s got the ability,” Blanchat said. “He’s had some great games for us. He had a couple of huge buckets (against Paola). But he can be a difference maker because he’s a little bit quicker than people think, a little faster, a little stronger and he’s got a knack for the ball.
“He’s been a great addition this year for us as a sophomore. Looking forward to him over the next two years … but next week first.”
Blanchat’s prognostication followed another nailbiting finish for his team, following 46-44 win over a league foe in the Panthers. In that game, Baldwin overcame a 15-point deficit in the first half just to have a chance at some late-game heroics.
The Bulldogs outscored Paola 14-7 in the third quarter to pull within four points. But the Bulldogs nearly opened the final frame with two straight empty possessions. That is, if not for Wheeler making another big play to make sure his team maintained its momentum late.
Cooper Carr pulled up for a deep 3-point attempt, only for the ball to rim out. But Wheeler perfectly timed his run from the corner to crash the glass, even dodging the 6-foot-7 forward for Paola, Hoyt Hoffine. Wheeler slid underneath Hoffine’s box out attempt, secured the rebound and delivered the putback layup, seemingly through contact despite no whistles blowing afterward.
Although Paola quickly extended its lead back out to two possessions with quick score on the other end, that play from Wheeler helped spark a run of baskets from Baldwin’s seniors down the stretch, including Carr’s go-ahead basket in the final minute when he converted an And-1 opportunity. That was the third straight time the Bulldogs scored a traditional 3-point play to close the game, including one from Schoenberger on the previous possession and Carr again the possession before that.
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Baldwin’s Jackson Wheeler powers through contact as he prepares to shoot a layup against Paola in a 4A sub-state boys basketball game on March 7 at Baldwin Junior High School.
Here’s what Carr said of that victory: “There’s no words to describe this feeling, but I’m just grateful for the coaching staff, my teammates and everyone that supported me throughout these four years.”
In terms of how he pulled it off, Carr pointed to what he say is the biggest change to his own game over the last four years: speed with which he processes the game when he’s out on the floor.
Everybody in the building watched with anticipation as Carr slowly knifed, nay, daggered his way through a pair of Paola defenders on his drive to the basket.
He slowly turned the handle, allowing the Panthers to kill their own chances by pressing their own flesh into the sharp edges of arms, carving their way through any resistance. Moving as if he were Neo from “the Matrix” movies and making decisions in “bullet time,” Carr waited for the perfect moment to rise up and lightly kiss the ball off the glass and through the cylinder.
“Those last seven seconds were like seven minutes,” Blanchat said. “But he pulled through again. Then we defended and Paola took a good shot at it. But fortunately, it didn’t go in.”
Just as Blanchat and nearly all of the other spectators saw the game-winning play unfold in an almost time-lapsed fashion, Carr also performed the play feeling as if time slowed down just for him.
“It’s pretty slow for me, too,” Carr said. “As the game just slowed down in those big pressure, high pressure moments, I’m prepared for those. I faced those my whole career, so the game doesn’t get sped up like it does for most guys.
“But like you said, it happened a lot of times in that game where you get down there, there’s four dudes, but you just got to go get a bucket. That’s exactly what I did on the last play. I’m just grateful, blessed, obviously from the Lord, but just extremely grateful that it went in, that we got the dub.”
Carr said after that game that this team knows what it takes to win games like these.
“But honestly, this one’s a little more special,” Carr said. “Our senior group, this is our last game in this gym. We knew that we didn’t want to go out losing. We didn’t want to walk away crying and so at halftime, we came together. That’s just what experience does in times of adversity, it brings you together with experience, and that’s exactly what we did.
“We put our heads down and we got it done.”
Mac Moore/Lawrence Sports
Baldwin’s Cooper Carr tries to spin past and defender on the way to a layup against Paola in a 4A sub-state boys basketball game on March 7 at Baldwin Junior High School.
Blanchat complimented Paola’s defense in the game. Although the Panthers earned a 58-52 road win over Baldwin at the beginning of the season, the Bulldogs returned the favor with their own 68-57 win at Paola on Feb. 24.
“It was still fresh in their minds that we beat them at their place and they’ve got a good group,” Blanchat said. “Those big guys plug the lane and they can defend on the perimeter. They defended really, really well and we didn’t move the ball very well in the first half. We stuck to trying to just let Cooper go, or Leo go, and they just didn’t want that to happen.
“Then we didn’t do a great job defending. We gave up 10 in the first quarter and 17 in the second quarter. So yeah, giving up 27 at halftime wasn’t great on our end either. But luckily, we got it to click in the second half offensively.”
Schoenberger said it felt amazing to help his team punch a ticket to state once again.
“It’s an incredible experience,” Schoenberger said. “I love these guys, it was a great team win. I’m excited to go to the state tournament for the fourth time.”
Schoenberger credited Paola with making the Bulldogs work so hard for their fourth straight sub-state title.
“They played a tough game,” Schoenberger said. “They’re a tough team that we’ve had play against all four years, a league opponent.”
Although these two teams are very familiar with one another, this was the first time of this four-year stretch where Baldwin and Paola matched up in the postseason.
“Their coach had a good game plan against us and they played us well,” Schoenberger said. “It was tough to get buckets down the stretch, but we stuck with it. We got stops and we kept doing what we do, and that’s attacking all 32 minutes of the game.
“We never let up, we never let off the gas and we got it done.”
Of course, those 32 minutes of Baldwin being on the attack usually involves a few more minutes from Schoenberger then the Bulldogs were able to get in this one.
Mac Moore/Lawrence Sports
Baldwin’s Leo Schoenberger takes an off-balanced layup attempt against Paola in a 4A sub-state boys basketball game on March 7 at Baldwin Junior High School.
Already trailing 17-6 with just under 6:20 left on the clock in the second quarter, Schoenberger attempted to get the momentum to swing back his team’s way by aggressively attacking the basket. But as he tried to elevate with his second step on a pair of long strides, his left foot landed on the foot of Paola’s Leland Gerken, who slid into Schoenberger’s path at the last second.
Schoenberger shot, released at a much lower height than he intended, got swatted by Paola’s 6-foot-7 forward Hoyt Hoffline. Schoenberger and Hoffline both crumpled to the floor, followed by Hoffline falling over the pair of bodies at his feet. While Hoffline quickly bounced back to his feet and Gerken received help from another teammate to get up and walk off the impact, Schoenberger stayed down on the court clutching his right ankle.
Schoenberger eventually walked off the court, with assistance, before immediately going into the locker room to be evaluated by an athletic trainer.
While he was out of the game, Paola took advantage of the massive size advantage for Hoffline without Schoenberger guarding him or even being able to pull down rebounds for the Bulldogs.
The Panthers extended their lead to as much as 15 points over the next three minutes of game time. When Schoenberger returned to the court with 1:28 left before halftime, Paola led 25-12.
Even though the game changed quickly without him in the game, Schoenberger still gave his teammates credits for not allowing Paola to do even more damage in that situation.
“I can’t describe to you how proud I am of these guys and how much work they’ve put in,” Schoenberger said. “There’s not a team that I think deserves it more than these guys. We’ve played with a lot of these guys since we were little. Just the amount of work and the amount of fun we’ve had with this process, it’s incredible.
“These guys are absolutely awesome to play with. There’s not a day that goes by that I’m complaining. I wouldn’t want to complain about playing with these guys. I love these guys. These are my brothers and they’re so much fun to play with. I’m so glad we were able to get another one and keep this streak going.”
Carr’s go-ahead score looked eerily familiar for anybody who saw the ending of Baldwin’s 54-52 overtime win over a previously undefeated Bonner Springs on Feb. 27 at home.
In that previous outing, Baldwin needed the same heroics just to reach overtime against a previously undefeated Bonner Springs team. Trailing by two points in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs once again ran a play that put Carr in a position to score with the game on the line.
Mac Moore/Lawrence Sports
Baldwin’s Leo Schoenberger and Cooper Carr celebrate with twin roars after Schoenberger converts a layup while also drawing a foul against Paola in a 4A sub-state boys basketball game on March 7 at Baldwin Junior High School.
Instead of starting at the top of the key and driving toward the left on a drive to the basket, Carr used a screen from Schoenberger to get enough separation to pass the ball to senior guard Jackson Rood in the corner. Rood immediately dribbled toward the wing to quickly set up a short pass back to Carr, who wasted little time circling around his defender on his outside shoulder and driving down the baseline.
Carr got to the low block, where he started a spin back inside and around his defender. Although he found more space than he did on the final play against Paola, Carr landed his hop stop a little awkwardly. But even with the clock ticking under six seconds, the senior guard remained patient. He cradled the ball low and essentially dipped into a squat position, making sure he regained enough of his balance before launching into the air, allowing him to release his layup attempt over the arms of a descending Bonner Springs defender and banking the ball off the glass for the game-tying score.
Carr replicated that result at the end of overtime. This time with game tied going into this final possession, Carr opted for a nearly identical path as he would choose at the end of the game against Paola. Carr cleared the first of two defenders trying to cut off his path to the basket. The second defender, standout 6-foot-5 sophomore forward Jaiden Jones, tried to time his jump to block Carr’s shot right at the glass.
Instead, Carr slightly slowed down his stride and baited Jones into jumping a tiny bit early. Jones still seemed to be in position for a chasedown block from behind, but Carr waited until the very last second before he changed from his two-handed grip on the ball. He let go with his left hand, allowing his right hand to narrowly slip past Jones’ incoming palm strike aim, which was headed right toward where the ball would have been had the shooter used a more traditional layup form in that situation.
Carr again kissed the ball of the glass for the go-ahead score, this time at the buzzer.
Against both Bonner Springs and Paola, Baldwin faced three go-ahead situations in the waning seconds of either regulation and/or overtime. In both games and all three situations, Blanchat opted against calling a timeout to set up the final play.
“Do I take the timeout and set something up? But then if I do, Paola sets up their defense,” Blanchat said, starting to rehash his internal struggle from that moment in the sub-state finals, even after the game had concluded and his team had already won. “I knew with a veteran senior leader like Cooper, Leo Schoenberger, Colton Collum, those guys, we’ve been in that situation so many times.
“They knew the progressions we go through in those end-game scenarios, so I let those guys roll. I gave them control and Cooper came up big again.”
Flash forward to Baldwin playing in the state quarterfinals on Wednesday, and this game had a similar late-game thriller finish in the making as those previous contests. But this time, it was Baldwin controlling the action early before the opposing team tried to be the ones to pull off the epic comeback victory.
Baldwin took control early and built up a 29-14 halftime margin thanks to a 63.6% clip from the field. The Bulldogs also held Pratt to under 19% from the field, including just 2 of 11 from 3-point range.
Mac Moore/Lawrence Sports
Baldwin’s Leo Schoenberger drives toward the basket and around a Paola defender in a 4A sub-state boys basketball game on March 7 at Baldwin Junior High School.
But Pratt flipped the script quickly coming out of the break. The Greenbacks went on an 11-0 scoring run to cut the deficit to just four points midway through the third quarter.
The Bulldogs finally responded with a couple made shots, but Pratt continued its hot scoring stretch and pulled within one possession going into the final two minutes of the frame.
But Baldwin closed out the third quarter strong, going on a 6-0 run.
Pratt kept its hot shooting going as the Greenbacks quickly chopped back down that 41-33 deficit early in the fourth quarter. After a quick 5-0 run for Pratt, Carr found Schoenberger on the low block, where he backed down his defender and scored a layup. But Pratt scored two straight baskets to tie the game for the first time at 43-all.
Schoenberger tried to replicate that previous score on his team’s next possession, but he ended up needing to rebound his own miss and drew a foul. The Bulldogs passed the ball in from under the basket, but Kreyton Frost’s entry pass aimed at Schoenberger ended up bouncing off the latter’s hands and out of bounds for a turnover.
Pratt had a chance to go-ahead for the first time, but Titus missed short on a 3-point attempt. Senior forward Colton Collum tipped the ball over to Schoenberger for the rebound, which he turned into a coast-to-coast basket as he went Euro step into a layup.
On Baldwin’s next possession, Carr tried to attack by dribbling along the baseline toward the basket. His drive seemed to initially get cut off, only for Carr’s footwork to prove lethal for opposing defenses once again. Pratt senior forward Josiah Schmidt figured Carr would need to quickly pass the ball away after starting his dribble so far from the basket. But as Schmidt backed up to try and provide some help defense in the paint, Carr maintained his balance to quickly pivot back around toward the basket before elevating for an easy layup.
Schoenberger copied Carr’s patented spin into the post as he knocked down a mid-range jumper to put the Bulldogs up 49-45 with just over two minutes to go in fourth quarter.
After a quick stop on defense, Carr tried to deliver the dagger with a drive to the basket on the other end. He also went right at Pratt’s 6-foot-6 star forward in senior Arley Morrell, who had four fouls at that point in the game. But a swipe at the ball from a help defender caused Carr to miss his layup attempt far left, and without Morrell needing to play too aggressively with his defense.
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Baldwin’s players celebrate a big play against Paola in a 4A sub-state boys basketball game on March 7 at Baldwin Junior High School.
On the other end, it ended up being Morrell who converted an And-1 to pull his team back within one point with just over a minute remaining on the clock. Morrell finished with 9 points and six rebounds as the Bulldogs limited him throughout the game. Instead, it was Caleb Strong who led Pratt with 13 points and 10 rebounds, while Hudson contributed 11 points.
Hoping to score and give the team some breathing room, the Bulldogs looked to Carr on offense. But after trying to find some room up dribbling from close to the scorer’s tabletop and around a screen near the top of the key, the officials called a five-second closely guarded call which gave the ball right back to Pratt.
Carr had an uncharacteristic 3-of-10 performance from the free-throw line, including two straight misses to leave the open for Pratt late.
As opposed to Baldwin’s strategy in these late-game situations tied or trailing by one possession, Pratt chose to call a timeout and set up a play for their final shot. Although the Greenbacks came prepared with a great play to get the ball to a player on the perimeter, then driving to the paint, Wheeler was also prepared to shut the play down at the basket.
Schoenberger finished with 23 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Carr contributed 17 points, five rebounds, five steals and two assists. Wadel finished with six points while Wheeler rounded out the team’s scoring with four points, as well as tying Schoenberger and Carr for the team-high in rebounds.
This will be the fifth semifinals appearance for Baldwin boys basketball program. The Bulldogs are still looking for their first state championship game appearance in their 13th overall state appearance. Baldwin had its best finish in 2000, when the team took third.
No matter the final result, Carr said his goal is always to stay focused on the process over the product.
“It’s important to trust your work,” Carr said. “That’s what I do, I trust my work. I put in the time putting up the shots, so I’m confident in that. Sometimes that gets you the dub, sometimes it doesn’t. But it’s important that you continue to trust that (work), no matter what.”
Tucker Bradley/BigB Flicks
Baldwin’s Leo Schoenberger celebrates after the clock hits zero in the Bulldogs’ 50-48 victory over Pratt in a 4A state quarterfinals boys basketball game on March 11 at Friends University in Wichita.
Mac Moore/Lawrence Sports
Baldwin players pose for photos with three of the team’s four straight sub-state championship trophies after winning the fourth against Paola in a 4A sub-state boys basketball game on March 7 at Baldwin Junior High School.
