Great Bend surges late for 74-56 win
Story Credit – Brett Marshall/GCHS Athletics
Garden City, KS — One really never knows what goes into the ebb and flow of a basketball game, and certainly there were those moments in Thursday night’s Western Athletic Conference opener at The Garden for the host Buffaloes’ boys.
Facing defending WAC champion Great Bend, the Buffs were playing a wounded team without all-state forward Ian Premer (6-6, 23ppg). Premer, who is headed to Notre Dame to play football next fall, injured a leg in December and had missed the last four games, all losses, this for a team expected to vie for a Class 5A state championship.
However, even with Premer on crutches and sitting on the bench, the Panthers had too much firepower for the Buffs en route to a 74-56 victory. Perhaps they had finally figured out how to play without their big man in the middle.
The main culprit was junior Connor Ohnmacht. a 6-1 guard/forward, who scored an eye-popping 34 points (14-of-22 from the field) to help the Panthers make a late surge and pull away from the Buffs.
“We had too many places in the game where we had lapses on both offense and defense,” said GCHS head coach Luke Swedberg. “We had an awfully slow start, then started to pick things up.”
The Buffs trailed early and were down five, 18-13, after one quarter. The Panthers slowly built their lead in the second quarter, taking as big a lead as 11 points but finishing with a 10-point advantage, 35-25, at intermission.
The third quarter provided the Buffs and a large home crowd with some hope for another patented rally, as they came from down 41-28, to score 14 unanswered points in a span of nearly three minutes to take a brief 42-41 lead.
“We made a run, turned the pressure up a little and got them to make some mistakes and turned them into points,” Swedberg said. “But we just couldn’t keep the momentum going.”
That one-point lead lasted just 10 seconds and in the closing 3:30 of the third period, the Panthers outscored the Buffs 12-4 to go into the final quarter up by seven, 53-46.
Any hope of a fourth-quarter rally quickly was dashed by the up-tempo Panthers as they scored the first nine points of the fourth to take command at 62-46. The Buffs never made it closer than 14. Great Bend’s biggest lead came at 74-50 before a pair of late 3-pointers by the Buffs got the margin under 20.
The Buffs got 18 points from senior guard Daniel Monarrez and senior forward Jalen Jagels contributed 11.
Great Bend, meanwhile, got 16 points from Jacob Hall. It was Ohnmacht, however, that put the Panthers on his shoulders in the absence of the older Premer, whose younger brother Alec contributed 6 points.
“They just keep coming at you and you have to match that effort the whole game,” Swedberg said. “The first quarter was an indicator when they doubled us in shots taken. We couldn’t maintain the momentum we had when we came back.”
The Buffs shot 41.3 percent from the field (19-of-46) and were only 4-of-18 from 3-point range. Great Bend shot 49.2 percent (29-of-59) and hit 6-of-15 from behind the arc.
Great Bend also got the better of the rebounding battle, owning a 37-24 advantage and getting 16 offensive boards.
The Buffs handed out 10 assists but committed 19 costly turnovers. Great Bend was 13 in the assist line and just 12 miscues.
The Buffs will regroup and have an extra day to prepare for their next WAC encounter on Tuesday, Jan. 13, when they travel to Liberal to face the Redskins. Liberal is 1-7 overall and 0-1 in the WAC, having already lost to Hays in December. The lone win for the Redskins was against Wichita-North.
Final Note on Great Bend: The Panthers had lost four straight after winning four to begin the season with Premer in the lineup. However, their four losses came against Sterling (8-0), Emporia (9-0), Pratt (8-0) and Salina South (7-2), in OT. Combined those four teams were 32-2 before this week’s final games were to be played.
WAC Standings: After Thursday night’s Great Bend-Garden City game, the WAC Standings were: Hays, 6-3/1-0; Great Bend, 5-4/1-0; Dodge City, 5-3/0-0; Garden City, 6-4/0-1; Liberal, 1-7/0-1. Dodge City was scheduled to play at Cheney Friday night while Hays was to host unbeaten Emporia. Great Bend is idle until Jan. 16 with a home game against Hutchinson.
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Western Athletic Conference
Game #1
Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026
At The Garden
GREAT BEND 74, GARDEN CITY 56
Great Bend (74) — Ohnmacht 14 3-6 34, Wondra 3 0-0 6, Minton 2 0-0 4, Stroup 3 1-2 8, Hall 6 3-8 16, A. Premer 2 1-2 6. Totals 30 8-18 74.
Garden City (56) — Rosales 1 0-0 2, Chairez 1 0-0 3, Walter 1 0-0 3, Monarrez 6 4-6 18, Longa 1 0-0 3, B. Jagels 2 1-2 5, J. Jagels 4 3-5 11, Hemmert 2 0-0 5, Strecker 3 0-0 6. Totals 21 8-13 56.
Great Bend (5-4/1-0)…18…17…18…21…–…74
Garden City (6-4/0-1)…13…12…21…10…–…56
3-point goals—Great Bend 6 (Ohnmacht 3, Stroup 1, Hall 1, Premer 1); Garden City 6 (Chairez 1, Walter 1, Monarrez 2, Longa 1, Hemmert 1). Fouls—Great Bend 18; Garden City 19. Fouled out–None.
