GIDDINGS — The Flatonia High School basketball team outlasted Milano High School in a playoff match at Buffaloes Gym Feb. 28 by a final score of 62-50.
Milano started the game off hot, then the Bulldogs were able to gather themselves and and gain a double-digit lead for the majori ty of the second half. They were also able to dodge an enormous night from Milano senior forward Jayce Todd, who scored 42 total points and scored all of his team’s points in the second half.
"It means a lot, but we want to worry about the next game on the schedule,” said Flatonia head boys basketball coach Chris Sodek. "That's what you want to worry about. We got to get to that next game and see if we can
take care of that one and move on from there. It was fun. We got a good group of boys. You can see everybody stepped up today. I think we played, consistently, probably eight guys quite a bit and all those kids did their job. That's all you can ask for.
Maybe somebody will appreciate Flatonia basketball now. We've had good teams, but we always run into somebody good. Credit to Milano, they’ve got a hell of a team too.”
Bulldogs senior guard Holden Kloesel put up a team-high 19 points and hit all kinds of shots to give his team a nice lift. "This is what we’ve been dreaming about for the past four years,” Kloesel said. "Last year, I didn't play. We had another kid out, we knew this year was gonna be different, so we came out here and gave it everything we got.”
Milano started the game on a 10-0 run with a jumper, two threes, and a layup, then Flatonia stormed back to make it 10-8 at about the three minute mark in the first quarter on a free throw from senior Jaidyn Guyton and two three pointers from senior Keyshaun Green, one being an and one basket.
Todd hit a three for the Ea- gles with just under a minute to go that was followed by a floater of the glass from Bulldogs senior point guard Luke Law to make it 13-12 at the end of the first quar ter in favor of Milano.
Both teams traded punches for the majority of the second quarter with a mixture of bas kets, then Flatonia scored seven unanswered points to take a 2620 lead at halftime on two free throws from Green, one from Guyton, along with a floater and a three from Kloesel.
Flatonia really separated themselves in the third quarter and took a 39-25 advantage with about three minutes to go on a layup from Guyton and good shotmaking overall as a team. After trading a few baskets in the later minutes, Flatonia found themselves ahead 43-31 after the third quarter.
As Todd continued to put the team on his back for Milano with many impressive makes at the rim and around the perimeter, the Bulldogs kept their poise in the fourth quarter with major contri butions from Green, Guyton, and Kloesel to a secure a 62-50 victory.
