Scott City splits with Goodland in regular season finale

Scott City, Kan. (westernkansasnews.com)–On Tuesday night at Scott Community High School, the Beavers played host to Goodland in what would be the final tune up before postseason for both teams. In their league and regular season finales, it would be the Cowgirls leading from start to finish in a 52-20 win over Scott City, while the Beaver boys would fight off a pesky Goodland team and pull away for a 65-35 win.

Goodland would lead in the early seconds and never let up. The Cowgirls forced 12 Scott City turnovers in the first eight minutes of play, and led 22-0 after the first period. It was 25-0, before the Lady Beavers scored their first points of the game, when Madison Orr hit a three with 6:09 left before halftime. Scott City (3-17, 0-10 GWAC) would actually outscore Goodland (11-9, 5-5) in the second eight minutes 16-13, but trail 35-16 at intermission. The Cowgirls would score 12 straight in the third period to take a 47-16 lead heading into the final quarter. A running clock was used, due to the 30-point rule, and Goodland had the 6-4 edge, en route to their 11th win of the season. Two Cowgirls finished in double figures, led by Margaux Thompson with 17 points, and Kate-Lynn King had 12. Scott City was led by Nancy Wiebe with six points off the bench. With the loss, the Lady Beavers were winless in GWAC play for the first time in their five-year history of the league.

Shelby Crawford Postgame

With the top seed in the Beloit Sub-State already clinched, one more thing was up for grabs for Scott City. That was a chance at a share of the GWAC crown. Goodland would make the Beavers earn the win. Early on and for most of the game, the Cowboys would not go down after a big Scott City run. The Beavers led 13-5 after the first quarter, and pushed their lead to 28-14 at intermission. In the first half, Scott City (19-1, 9-1 GWAC) used runs of seven, six and six to push their lead to the halftime margin. Goodland (4-16, 2-8) kept clawing away in the game, and would pull as close as 11 early in the third quarter at 28-17. Even though the Beavers built their lead up to 17, the Cowboys kept up the pace, as both teams scored 13 third quarter points, and Scott City led 41-27 heading into the final period. The Beavers would put the clamps on Goodland, and used a 7-0 run to take a 53-31 lead with 4:34 remaining, and scored the games final 11 points to make the final 65-35. Despite the struggles at times, Scott City ended up with four players in double figures, led by Trey O’Neil with 14 points, followed by Chantz Yager with 11 and 10 points apiece from Dylan Hutchins and Sloan Baker. Goodland got 11 points from Kolt Traschel and 10 from Levi Archer. With the win, Scott City picked up their 21st straight home league win, dating back to February, 2010, and also finished the regular season with a 19-1 record for the fourth time in the last five games.

Assistant Coach Brian Gentry Postgame

After Tuesday, the Scott City girls will be the eighth seed, and will travel to Beloit on Monday, March 2, for the opening round of sub-state. Minneapolis will be the two seed, followed by Phillipsburg, Russell, Norton, Hoisington and Ellsworth. Beloit is 17-3 on the season. As for the boys, Scott City will be the top seed, and host Russell next Tuesday night. The Broncos are 2-18 on the year. 

Sub-State brackets will officially be released on Wednesday for Class 3A.

Goodland will begin sub-state play in Colby on Thursday, March 5, with the boys playing Concordia, and their girls also playing Concordia on Friday, March 6.