Kit Carson Steps Up Their Game Over the Weekend, Cheyenne Wells Continues Winning Streak

The Kit Carson boys’ team coached by Damon Dechant sports a dismal record if one is prone to just look at the 2-7 season tally thus far. However, in looking a little closer at this information, inside basketball knows those losses were in close contests for the most part. Wildcat head coach Damon Dechant knows those close losses result as of a lack of confidence.

After this past weekend where the Wildcats gave highly-ranked Wiley all they could handle in a 54-43 OT win and then finished a tough game with Hi-Plains getting the win, 54-47, Dechant knows his Wildcats are getting there, “The most important thing we gained from the weekend was confidence.”

As for the Wiley game, Dechant was mostly happy about what he saw in this tight, District 2 contest, “On Friday we showed some toughness to battle back and force overtime against a good team. Rebounding will carry a team as far as it wants to go. We didn’t do a good enough job of that throughout the game. It was nice to finally hit some outside shots, but the struggles around the basket remained a problem. The biggest positive, however, was the confidence gained.”

Most teams are out-sized by an extremely big Wiley group this year. The 6-2 Panthers have already chalked up 3 league wins in the conference and are considered one of the main teams to beat.

If Kit Carson would have had just a little more size on the inside, they may have grabbed that win, but as it was, it was all they could do to take to overtime. In the final minutes of the fourth quarter Brett Mayhan and Alex Mitchek each hit a deuce and a three to bring the Wildcats into a 41-41 deadlock.

Unfortunately, the confident Wiley group hit an impressive 8-for-10 free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.

For Kit Carson it was guard Danial Arnold hitting four long balls and scoring 16 points and another 15 points from Mayhan that kept them in the contest.

The Panthers were led by the big guy inside Westin Langsten who had a phenomenal game scoring 26 points. Cooper Tixier added 7 points while Riley Comer and Evan Larrick each chipped in 5 more apiece.

It was Paul Mitchek and Mayhan that set the pace of the game against Hi-Plains as Mayhan was able to slice his way into the middle of the Patriot defense for 17 points on the night. Mitchek had 19 hard-earned points from the big man spot. Alex Mitchek added 8 points while Tanner Conaway sprinkled in 5 more counters

Hi-Plains rolled along early pacing the Wildcats as the Patriot’s home basket was hot from downtown hitting a total of 8 long balls—6 coming from Konner Rowden-Stum.

Kit Carson only has one game this coming weekend as they welcome Stratton to the Jim.