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Behind the 3-point line, Ethan Johnson gets an open shot at the basket during the district championship game against Wray. — The Holyoke Enterprise | Johnson Publications

Talk about an upset!

After beating Yuma, Holyoke is district runner-up

Yuma’s boys basketball team sauntered into last week’s district tournament with a 17-2 record and the No. 1 position in District 2. During regular-season action, the team beat Holyoke twice — by margins of 18 and 22. Having won state in 2018 and 2019, most would say Yuma had every right to expect a win last Friday night.

Rather than coasting effortlessly into a district title, though, Yuma was upset by Holyoke in the Feb. 28 semifinals. The Dragons, with their 7-13 record and No. 4 seed, won 32-29.

That win sent Holyoke to the championship game Feb. 29 to face No. 3 Wray, who beat No. 2 Sedgwick County 64-56 in the semifinals.

As was the case with Yuma, Holyoke played two games against Wray earlier in the season. Wray won both — by margins of 22 and 33 points.

Despite that history, Saturday’s championship game was a fierce contest that truly wasn’t decided until its final moments. In the end, though, Wray won 54-49, and Holyoke was the district runner-up.

In the third-place game, Yuma beat Sedgwick County 38-25.

Looking back on a remarkable weekend of basketball, coach Marcus Kammer said, “Our teamwork and effort seem to be hitting on all cylinders.”

“We beat Yuma and almost had Wray — two teams that, in all fairness, have blown us out the last two years,” he noted, “and we were with them toe-to-toe for eight quarters.”

The Dragons had an admittedly challenging start to their season. It wasn’t until last month that they started really racking up some wins. Of their eight total victories, five happened in February. But as their coach astutely pointed out, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.

“These boys are going to make this next weekend interesting if we can build on this past weekend,” he said of the regional tournament they’ll be attending March 6-7 in Peyton.

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Holyoke Enterprise

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