Excelsior Springs had to settle for fourth place in the varsity boys basketball portion of last week’s Richmond Winter Classic.

The local hoopsters went 1-2 for the tournament, falling 71-43 Jan. 24 to the host school, defeating Wellington-Napoleon 67-52 Jan. 25 and then falling to Lone Jack 55-46 Jan. 27 in the thirdplace game.

Richmond dominated Excelsior Springs from the outset, leading 17-0 after one quarter. The Spartans led 37-12 at halftime and edged Excelsior Springs 34-31 the second half.

Senior Rakai Gantt led Excelsior Springs with 15 points. Senior Trevor Stanton also reached double figures with 10 points.

Excelsior Springs pulled away in the second half to defeat Wellington-Napoleon in a tussle of teams both nicknamed the Tigers. Excelsior Springs trailed 18-17 after one quarter. It was tied at 27 at halftime. An 11-4 run through the first three minutes of the quarter paved the way to a 43-33 Excelsior Springs lead entering the fourth quarter.

Excelsior Springs finished it with a 2419 fourth quarter.

Stanton led all scorers with a careerhigh 27 points. His stat line also included nine rebounds.

Excelsior Springs had three other scorers reach double figures. Gantt scored 12, and senior Brendan Blackburn and sophomore Carson Gholson scored 10 each.

Other contributors were senior Damari Wesley with six points and senior Lucas Dillman with two points.

Excelsior Springs and Lone Jack traded leads throughout the first half of the third-place game. The Mules used a 13-0 third-quarter run to pull away.

The local hoopsters started this week by falling Tuesday night at Winnetonka in Greater Kansas City Suburban Conference-Blue Division play. At press time, they were slated for a road meeting Wednesday with North Platte and a divisional meeting Friday with visiting Ruskin, a Kansas City-based school.