Buffs struggle in home loss to Hays
Story Credit – Brett Marshall/GCHS Athletics
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For most of the last decade, the Hays Indians’ boys’ basketball team has been a thorn in the side of the Garden City Buffaloes.
Even in the best of years, Hays always provided a bigger-than-life challenge to come away with wins, especially those on the Buffs’ home court, The Garden.
They’ve done so with a variety of lineups–tall with potent inside scoring, players who can shoot the long-range 3-pointers and always with a strong defensive effort.
Friday night at The Garden looked eerily the same as the Buffs finished with their lowest offensive output of the season in a surprising 55-34 loss to the Indians. The loss dropped the Buffs to 7-5 overall and 1-2 in the Western Athletic Conference. Hays is now 8-3 and 2-0.
“We just had a hard time offensively,” GCHS head coach Luke Swedberg said. “We got hung up in our progressions and we were not as fluid as usual.”
The Buffs never got untracked on the offensive end, scoring just 7, 11, 8 and 8 in each of the four quarters. Despite that, they were still within range after three quarters, trailing 37-26, but could not answer the call for a rally only to be outscored 18-8 down the final eight minutes.
“We’ve got a lot of tape to watch and learn what we want and need to do,” Swedberg said. “Hays did what we expected them to do and that was crash the boards and play physical. We expected that.”
With the offense sputtering, Swedberg said it allowed Hays to get its defense set, which resulted in the Buffs playing at a much slower pace than usual.
“It doesn’t help yourself when you’re playing the game at a pace your opponent wants,” Swedberg said.
There were two critical surges in the game that played pivotal roles in the final outcome. The first came in the second quarter when the Indians went on a late 8-0 run to go from a 17-16 lead to 25-18 by halftime.
The second came in the later stages of the third period when the Buffs had closed to within 25-21 only to have the Indians go on an extended 12-5 run to make it 37-26 after three periods. The closest the Buffs could get was 41-31 with just under five minutes left.
Hays put the game away with a 14-3 finish.
Despite not having its usual array of long-range shooters, the Indians did get three treys while limiting the Buffs to just two, well below their season average.
As a result, the Buffs failed to place a player in double-figure scoring. Jalen Jagels was high with 8 points while Koby Rosales and Daniel Monarrez added 7 points each. Hays was led by 6-4 senior Izaac Fox with 19 points and 12 rebounds, while Trey Oakley added 11.
The statistics tell the story of the night for the Buffs. They hit just 12-of-46 field goals (26.1 percent) and only 2-of-12 from 3-point range (16.7 percent). They were just 8-of-15 at the free throw line, handed out 4 assists while committing 10 turnovers. They were out rebounded 37-21 by the Indians (9 offense/12 defense to Hays’ 11 offense/26 defense). The Indians had 10 assists and 11 turnovers.
Tournament Week: Valley Center January Jam
This week the Buffs will take a break from regular season play and compete in the Valley Center January Jam on Thursday-Friday-Saturday, Jan. 22-23-24.
The bracket was just released and the Buffs are the No. 6 seed at 7-5. They will play the No. 3 seed Olathe Northwest (7-3) at 7 p.m. on Thursday in the quarterfinals. The other lower Bracket match-up will see No. 2 Wichita Heights (No. 7 in 6A, 9-2) play host Valley Center (6-6) in the 5:30 p.m. game.
The upper bracket will have Mill Valley (9-2, No. 3 in 6A) take on Wichita-Southeast (4-4) in the opener at 2:30 p.m. and Maize South (9-3, No. 10 in 5A) meeting Blue Valley-West (8-3) in the 4 p.m. contest.
Consolation and championship semifinals will be played Friday with placing games set for Saturday. The Buffs will play either at 4 p.m. or 7 p.m. on Friday.
“Olathe Northwest’s a very good team that has a lot of length,” Swedberg said. “The tournament has a great field with a lot of talent. It will be great to see where we are at at the middle point of the season. It will be a different playing experience.”
If a person wants to watch live-streaming of the Buffs’ games, they can go to:
http://YouTube.com/homestudios.
Each day has a live-streaming page.
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Western Athletic Conference
Friday, Jan. 16
At The Garden
HAYS 55, GARDEN CITY 34
Hays (55) — Pfeifer 4 1-2 9, Homeier 1 0-0 2, Oakley 3 5-6 11, Harmoney 1 0-0 3, Schmidtberger 1 0-0 3, Fox 8 2-4 19, Ruder 2 2-4 6, Loving 1 0-0 2. Totals 21 10-16 55.
Garden City (34) — Rosales 3 1-3 7, Chairez 1 0-0 2, Walter 1 0-0 2, Monarrez 2 2-2 7, B. Jagels 1 0-0 3, J. Jagels 2 1-2 5, Strecker 2 4-8 8. Totals 12 8-15 34.
Hays (8-3/2-0)…13…12…12…18…–…55
Garden City (7-5/1-2)…7…11…8…8…–…34
3-point goals—Hays: 3 (Harmoney 1, Schmidtberger 1, Fox 1); Garden City: 2 (Monarrez 1, B. Jagels 1). Fouls—Hays: 14; Garden City: 14. Fouled out–Garden City (J. Jagels).
