Lady Buffs falls to Wichita SE

Story courtesy of Garden City High School Sports Information. Photo Courtesy Brad Nading/The Garden City Telegram.

GCHS girls will host rematch on Tuesday in 6A sub-state

If the Garden City High School girls’ basketball team wants to extend its season beyond a semifinal Class 6A sub-state tournament game, they will have to improve on their Friday night performance at Wichita Southeast.

In a battle between the Lady Buffs and the Lady Golden Buffaloes, the visitors had trouble defending the 3-point line, offensive rebound follows and layups that led to a 51-40 setback in the regular season finale.

Now, with a 13-10 record, the Lady Buffs will host the same team in next Tuesday’s Class 6A semifinal at The Garden. Southeast’s record improved to 12-11 and by virtue of being the higher seed (No. 8) the Lady Buffs get the home court advantage against the No. 9 seed.

Tip-off for the sub-state semifinal will be 6 p.m. in The Garden.

“We just looked sluggish,” said GCHS head coach Kelley Snodgass. “Maybe it was two days of being out of our routine (due to parent-teacher conferences), or what, we couldn’t take advantage of them playing their third game in four days. We were the team that looked sluggish. We just seemed to have a lack of energy both defensively and offensively.”

Despite four 3-point baskets in the first quarter, the Lady Buffs still trailed 17-12 at the end of the opening stanza. After falling further behind at 24-12 early in the second, a late 7-0 run pulled them to within five, 24-19, at intermission.

Early in the third, the Buffs pulled themselves right back in the mix at 26-25 on 3-pointers from Myah Korf and Tegan Snodgrass only to have the Golden Buffs answer with an 11-1 run to close out the quarter for a 37-26 lead.

“Our close-outs were not very good,” Snodgrass said. “We switched zones (from 1-3-1 to a 2-3) to better guard their baseline 3-point shooters, but we never did a great job of covering. They hit shots and had players making baskets that usually don’t.”

The closest the Buffs could get was seven, the last at 47-40 with 1:28 remaining but there would be no more points for Garden.

Snodgrass was the offensive force for the Buffs, finishing with 23 points but was the lone double-figure scorer. Twelve of those points came in the fourth quarter. She finished with a double-double by pulling down 13 rebounds.

Southeast, meanwhile, was led by Queen Chalmers with 11 points while Vivianna Wall and Ka’Maya Gantt added 10 points each. Chalmers also contributed 8 assists to the Southeast cause.

Statistically, the Lady Buffs struggled from both 2- and 3-point range, connecting on 13-of-48 overall (27.1 percent) and 7-of-28 (25 percent) from deep. Southeast hit 20-of-55 shots for 36.4 percent and was 7-of-27 (25.9) from behind the arc.

The Lady Buffs had the slimmest lead in rebounding with a 37-36 edge. The Buffs had 11 assists and 11 turnovers to 14 and 6 for the Lady Golden Buffaloes.

“We’re glad to be at home, but we’re going to have to use the time to focus on what we do well,” Snodgrass said. “We’re certainly going to have to play with more energy and play better transition defense. We can’t let them have uncontested layups and we’ll have to take better shots.”

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Friday, Feb. 27

At Wichita Southeast HS

WICHITA SE 51, GARDEN CITY 40

Garden City (40) — Powers 1 0-0 3, Hannagan 2 0-0 6, Brown 1 0-0 2, Korf 2 1-2 6, S. Doll 0 0-2 0, Snodgrass 7 6-8 23. Totals 13 7-12 40.

Wichita SE (51) — Chalmers 4 2-2 11, Gantt 4 2-2 12, Marcy 2 0-0 5, Wall 3 0-0 8, Allen 3 0-0 6, Hardwell 2 0-0 5, Holmes 2 0-0 4. Totals 20 4-4 51.

Garden City (13-10)…12…7…7…14…–…40

Wichita SE (12-11)…17…7…13…14…–…51

3-point goals—Garden City 7 (Powers 1, Hannagan 2, Korf 1, Snodgrass 3); Wichita SE 7 (Chalmers 1, Gantt 2, Marcy 1, Wall 2, Hardwell 1). Fouls—Garden City 9, Wichita SE 13. Fouled Out—Wichita SE (Holmes).