Chickasaw boys move to district final

    The night may have been summed up best by Keagan John as he walked away after an interview. New Hampton had just advanced past their district first-round opponent, North Fayette Valley 65-43, in a game played at Osage Thursday.    “You can’t give a bad team confidence,” said the Chickasaw junior after scoring a game-high 18 points.    John didn’t mean for it to be a derogatory comment about the TigerHawks, but earlier in the season the Chickasaws did defeat North Fayette Valley, who finished 11-11 on the season, by nearly 30 points.    The earlier game, by all practical purposes, was over by halftime with a 47-19 Chickasaw lead. But, as they say in the markets, past performances are no indication of future results and that holds especially true during tournament time.    New Hampton did take an early lead as Zach Wemark scored, then took a steal coast-to-coast for a basket to put the Chickasaws up 7-4; a Tristan Sweitzer 3-point shot and the NH boys were up 12-7 by the end of the first quarter and increased the lead in the second quarter.  But North Fayette Valley used a pair of 3-point shots to cut the lead to 22-19 at the four-minute mark of the second quarter and by the half New Hampton still only led by five, 30-25.  The rest of the story may be found in the Feb. 21 Tribune.