The Abilene Cowboys fell to the Bishop Miege Stags 54-36 in the semifinals of the 4A Division I State Boys Basketball Tournament at the Tony’s Pizza Event Center.  Abilene will play for third place tomorrow against Andover Central.  The Jaguars lost to McPherson 61-51 in the first semifinal of the day.

      Abilene jumped out to a 15-11 lead in the first quarter but then Miege went on a 16-0 run that bridged the end of the first quarter and the first four minutes plus of the second quarter.  Joshua Early would cap the run for Miege with a basket to put the Stags up 27-15 with 3:20 to play in the first half.  Abilene would pull to within nine at halftime at 29-20 as they scored four of the last six points of the half.  

      The Cowboys trailed nearly all of the second half by double figures as Miege would go on to the 18 point victory, which was their largest lead of the game.  Miege was led by their inside tandem of 6’8” Sophomore Jeremiah Robinson and 6’6” Senior Francesco Badocchi who each scored 12 points in the win.  The Stags’ size helped them out shoot the Cowboys 51% to 26% and out rebound Abilene 34-26.

      Championship Saturday gets started tomorrow at noon with #1 KC Piper 22-2 vs #2 Towanda-Circle 21-3 playing in girl’s third place game.  That will be followed at 2 pm with #2 Abilene Cowboys and # 8 Andover Central.  The #3 Bishop Miege girls 21-3 will be going for their second straight title.  The Lady Stags will take on #4 McPherson 21-3.  The boy’s title game will be a rematch of last year between #3 Bishop Miege 21-3 and #4 McPherson 20-4.  Last year Miege beat McPherson 69-59 for the title. 

      With a victory tomorrow Abilene could have their highest finish at the state tournament since 1992, when they won their only title.  The game will be broadcasted live on AM 1560 KABI,  pregame at 1:45 and the tipoff at 2 pm.