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Boys basketball
Piper 69, Mill Valley 36
Trey Bates, 23 points, 5 rebounds; Tamar Bates, 21 points, 6 rebounds; Brandan Jackson, 12 points, 5 rebounds; Braijion Barnes, 5 assists.
Girls basketball
Piper 86, Kansas City East Christian Academy 23
Evelyn Vazquez, 18 points; Grace Banes, 10 points; Jessica Thomas, 10 points.
by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College and Washburn University junior varsity matched field goal for field goal for 39 minutes before the Ichabods eked out an 80-77 win in Topeka Monday night.
There were eight lead changes and 10 ties before Washburn’s JoBreill Powell broke a 69-69 deadlock with a 3-point play with 3:27 remaining and the Ichabods stayed in front from the free throw line.
Arother Ratliff’s layup cut the Washburn lead to 72-71with 1:54 remaining but the Ichabods got two free throws from Isaiah Thorne and a field goal from Powell for a 76-71 lead.
Kelyn Bolton’s layup with 50 seconds left got KCKCC to 76-73 but the Ichabods converted four free throws in the closing seconds for the win.
“We are playing better with this young team,” KCKCC coach Kelley Newton said. “There is no doubt that when we figure things out it will be at the right time.”
KCKCC built an 8-point lead with 6:20 left in the first half and went into the halftime break with a 35-30 lead only to have the Ichabods rally behind spectacular second half shooting. The Ichabods took 21 shots, made 15 for a torrid 71.4 percent in outscoring KCKCC 50-42.
The hot shooing enabled Washburn to build a 9-point lead and the Blue Devils still trailed 68-60 with 6:18 to go before staging a furious rally for the 69-69 tie.
Taylor Turner’s two free throws and a DuVonte’ Beard field goal ignited the comeback. Malcolm Tate converted two free throws and Jalen Davis tied it with a field goal and free throw with 3:41 left.
Four Blue Devils scored in double figures in a well-balanced attack. Bolton, Tate and Daiyon Taylor each scored 13 points, Davis 11, Ratliff 8 and Beard and Calvin Slaughter 6 each.
KCKCC won the rebounding battle 36-27 with Bolton grabbing seven and Ratliff five as nine Blue Devils had two or more caroms. The Blue Devils also converted 21-of-24 free throws and forced 15 turnovers while committing just 10.
Powell had 21 points, Thorne 18 and David Jamaal 16 for Washburn (4-4), which drained 25-of-45 shots for 55.6 percent, 7-of-17 3-pointers (6-for-18 for KCKCC) and 23-of-31 free throws.
KCKCC (3-8) stays on the road, playing State Fair at 7 p.m. Saturday in Sedalia, Missouri, before closing out the pre-holiday season at home. Washburn comes in for a re-match Dec. 10 and Iowa Western Dec. 15.
The Hilton Garden Inn received preliminary approval Monday night for up to $4 million in industrial revenue bonds.
The property at 520 Minnesota Ave. will transfer ownership to the Unified Government for six months to a year during the IRB process, if the proposal is approved, according to the UG’s interim economic development director, Katherine Carttar.
Under the proposal, PHVIF Kansas City (Peachtree Hotel Group), the owner of Hilton Garden Inn, would use sales taxes received by the hotel to pay for construction materials, furniture, fixtures and equipment for renovations. The IRBs would use only the sales taxes that the hotel is generating. PHVIF acquired the Hilton Garden Inn in May 2018.
UG commissioners at the Economic Development and Finance Committee meeting Monday night asked a lot of questions once they heard the property would go back to UG ownership during this process. The UG had spent a lengthy time previously to sell the hotel to private owners.
The commissioners were told by their legal counsel that this lease arrangement happens in all of the IRB processes, and has been done many times before. All the related costs would be paid by the company, commissioners heard.
The transfer of ownership to the UG and lease back to the hotel company was a legal technicality required by the statute, according to the UG attorney. The UG attorney said that the time period involved in the transfer of ownership should not be enough to affect property taxes on the hotel. The IRB deal does not include property tax, only sales tax.
According to UG records, property taxes on the Hilton Garden Inn are about $291,008 for 2018, an increase of almost $100,000 since 2017. In Wyandotte County, the first half of property taxes is due on Dec. 20 and the second half is due in May.
Carttar said the UG economic development department was in support of renovations and investment into the hotel as it fits in with the other projects being developed in the downtown area.
The new downtown grocery store will be across the street from the Hilton Garden Inn, and the University of Kansas Health Systems is opening its new Strawberry Hill behavioral health campus in August of 2019, she said. She believes there will be an increased need for hotel rooms in the downtown area.
According to Cartarr, the benefit for the UG would be a much nicer hotel downtown, more investment in downtown KCK to bring people to stay there and shop more. It would result in more people coming downtown and spending money, she said.
The hotel currently is in the planning stage of renovation and hopes to start work in the first quarter of 2019. The hotel’s public spaces, rooms, bathrooms, food and beverage space, restaurant and exterior would be renovated under the plans.
In answer to a question from Commissioner Ann Brandau Murguia, a representative of the hotel said there would be about $250,000 to $300,000 in sales tax revenues affected in this plan. The commissioner asked about the worst-case scenario, and was concerned about a possibility the UG could be the owner of the hotel indefinitely, although the hotel’s representative and the UG’s economic development department did not think that was likely.
The vote to approve it was 5-1, with Commissioner Murguia voting no. The Hilton Garden Inn project next goes to the full UG Commission meeting at 7 p.m. Dec. 13.