By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
After briefly stumbling 76-59 at the hands of Sterling in the 2A state semifinals, the Ell-Saline boy’s basketball team rebounded well on Saturday, blowing out Valley Falls 109-74 to claim third place at state.
For the first time since 1980, a new boys basketball banner will hang in the gym in Brookville.
“What these guys did is huge and I’m sure we all felt a lot of pressure but this was a moment we felt like we lost last season and these were our expectations,” Ell-Saline head coach Marty Wendel said. “To make that a reality is huge especially when we were down 16 with five minutes left to go in our season a week ago.”
That mark of 109 points broke the all-time single-game scoring record for any team at the state tournament in the history of the state of Kansas.
The combined total of 183 points nearly broke another record, and now sits as the second most point-rich game in state basketball history, and the highest-scoring game in the recorded history of Class 2A.
“The pace was fast and we played our 1-3-1 zone throughout the entire game,” Wendel said. “They hadn’t seen that kind of quickness and athleticism and we hit shots and got a lot of good work in transition.”
This win was never in doubt, as the Cardinals flew out of the gates to a 33-15 lead in the first quarter, a 63-38 advantage at halftime, and a 97-51 mammoth lead in the third.
Things slowed a little in the fourth and final quarter, but thanks to their hard work in the opening three frames Ell-Saline was able to coast to victory in Manhattan.
Four different Cardinals notched double digits in this game, led by Brogan Rowley (34) Garrison Zerger (19) Reese Krone (15) Kas Kramer (13), and Trey Williams (12).
This state run caps off a 22-4 season for Ell-Saline, two massive feats considering the state of the program when Coach Wendel took over five years ago.
Brick by brick, Wendel and the Cardinals rebuilt a program that didn’t have a single winning season from 2013-2020, collecting the program's first win in nearly three seasons in 2021.
From there, the Cardinals stamped that first winning season in 2022-23, and just two years later they stand as the third best team in Class 2A, a remarkable turn of events in such a short time frame.
“It’s humbling as a head coach to see this program where it is now,” Wendel said. “I didn’t take over a diamond here, things were rough and it wasn’t pretty but to have people in the community that have backed and supported me through this and continued to believe and see the positive means everything.”
This also couldn’t have been done without a stellar senior class, consisting of Brogan Rowley, Garrison Zerger, Tayton Williams, Melvin Lutes, and Jake Tillberg.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our senior group,” he said. “We joke about the struggles we went through in their first few years but I’m so glad they were the ones to get here and accomplish this.”
While growing pains in the absence of that group will be present next season, Ell-Saline has built a program designed to last, and will be eager to get back on the floor when the ball goes back in the air next season.
“We do lose some key pieces and we’ll suffer from that a little bit,” Wendel said. “But it’s an opportunity for our underclassmen to step up and we’re optimistic about the guys we bring back that we can battle to do something like this again next year. It’s a run it back mentality”