Lady Buffs Fall, Boys Survive Fourth Quarter Scare vs. Red Demons

Dodge City, KS (WesternKansasNews.com) – Two games that were replayed from just two weeks prior went very differently than the first time for both the boy’s and girls’ Garden City basketball teams on Tuesday at Dodge City. For the Lady Buffs, one of their worst offensive nights of the season translated into a 38-30 loss. Then the boys in the 2nd game leaned on defense out of necessity to take down the Red Demons 49-45 and earn a season sweep. 

Girls Basketball | Garden City 30 Dodge City 38

After riding the high of a two-game winning streak and trying to win 3 straight for the first time this season Garden City (6-12) (2-4 WAC) came crashing down on offense against Dodge City. 

The Lady Buffs went into the halftime break trailing by 8 points 23-15 then came the 2nd half when the Buffs didn’t record a field goal in the 3rd quarter and were only able to convert on 2 attempts in the 4th quarter. The Lady Buffs would finish the night 8-33 with the least amount of makes of the season in a game. 

“I think tonight we saw the first case of thinking we are better than we really are, and that’s on me for not having the team ready,” Said coach Jacob Miller after the loss against Dodge City. The Buffaloes have now lost 8 straight games to the Lady Demons a streak that dates back to Feb. 12th, 2019.

Among the poor shooting performance, Garden City also turned the ball over 14 times and that helped contribute to the offensive woes. 

Aileen Becceril was responsible for a third of the Lady Buffs doing most of her damage at the free throw line with 8 makes on 9 attempts.

Boys Basketball | Garden City 49 Dodge City 45

Despite their worst offensive performance of the season, Garden City (17-1) (6-0 WAC) found a way to beat Dodge City for the second time this year.

The Buffs defense got the game rolling in the first quarter led by Emilio Zundt’s 11 points and 4 steals in the quarter alone. Those steals helped the Buffs score early and often in transition through the first period. Dodge City didn’t back down like the first matchup that saw Garden City hop out to a 21-4 first-quarter lead. In this game, things were much closer after one 16-13. 

In the second quarter, the offense slowed for both sides with Garden City just doing enough to take a 5-point lead into the break.

Then came the 3rd quarter that saw the Buffaloes stampede their way down low and throughout to jump out to a 13-point lead after the quarter. The Buffs outscored the Red Demons 21-13 in large part to Caleb Wiese’s team-high 16 points and 9 rebounds. The Buffaloes held a 13-point lead and would just need a few more baskets in the 4th to put the game out of reach.

There’s just one problem with that last statement, Garden City failed to record a single field goal in the 4th quarter in fact they only were able to spring across 2 free throws. The offensive shutdown helped Dodge claw their way back into the game and had a chance to tie the game with 8 seconds left before Daelyn Unzeta’s inbound pass sailed out of reach from Austin Schulte and on the ensuing inbound from Garden City Iziah Salinas was fouled and knocked down one free throw of two to put the game out of reach 49-45. 

“This was the first game where I felt like we played selfish especially late and that’s the story of this game in that 4th quarter we were lucky to come away with that,” said coach Jeff Williamson. He also added, “I’m not happy and there are a lot of guys in that locker that aren’t happy either and we have to and will get this fixed before Senior Night on Friday.”

The Buffaloes will be back in action on Friday night from Garden City High School as they welcome Hays to The Garden. You can listen to the game on 99.9 The Rock with pregame coverage beginning at 5:40 with the girls tipping off first at 6 pm.