Lady Buffs fall short in sub-state semis, 47-43

Story Credit: GCHS Athletics

This time, the Garden City Lady Buffaloes had the home court for the game that mattered the most on Tuesday night at The Garden.

Facing a Wichita Southeast team for the second time in four days, the host Lady Buffs gave a gallant effort but came up just shy of the Lady Golden Buffaloes in a 47-43 setback in the Class 6A sub-state semifinals.

The loss ended the first season for head coach Kelley Snodgrass and her youthful team (only 1 senior) to finish with a 13-11 record, going 4-4 and a third-place finish in the Western Athletic Conference.

“They’re a very well-balanced team and got 11-11-11 and 8 from their best players,” Snodgrass said as she watched the season come to an end. “We knew they could hit the 3’s, but we just didn’t to them soon enough.”

It was a tough way to see the curtain drop on the campaign as the Lady Buffs were once 13-7 but lost their final four games, two of those to the top two teams in the WAC, one in overtime, and the final two to Southeast (51-40 on Friday at Southeast).

After an early first quarter lead (12-8), the Lady Buffs found themselves trying to climb back on top against Southeast, but went to the halftime break down six, 23-17, thanks to three 3-pointers by the Golden Buffs from three different players. They were outscored 15-5 in the period.

In the early third, the Buffs fell behind by 10, 29-19 and then slowly began their rally, pulling to within one, 31-30, at 1:12 when Tegan Snodgrass scored on a fast break driving layup. But Southeast countered with a floater and a three-pointer from Queen Chalmers in the final 60 seconds to make it 36-31 heading to the final eight minutes.

The Lady Buffs had two brief leads in the fourth quarter, 37-36, and then 42-41 with 1:02 remaining on a driving layup to the bucket by freshman Sophie Doll, who came off the bench to provide 8 important points.

“Sophie has really come a long way and she’s only going to get better,” Snodgrass said of her 6-0 freshman center. “She was big for us tonight.”

Southeast then got a huge 3-pointer from Kamaria Marcy, the team’s ninth of the game, to go up 44-42. Doll was fouled with 0:20.4 on the clock and she made the first of two to leave the Buffs down by one.

The Buffs fouled Chalmers twice to put Southeast into the bonus and Chalmers made the first, missed the second, only to see Southeast grab an errant rebound forcing the Buffs to foul again and it was Chalmers who went back to the free throw line and swished both at 0:04.1 and the final four-point margin.

“They’re big up front and made it tough for us to get some of the rebounds,” Snodgrass said. “We’re just going to have to find ways to be tougher next season and I believe we will.”

When the Buffs inbounded the ball, Snodgrass got the ball back and then was bumped by a Southeast player with 0:03 showing, but no call was made and the clock ran out.

The Lady Buffs got double-figure scoring from Snodgrass with 17 and Mia Hannagan with 11. Those two also accounted for the 4 made 3-pointers (3 by Hannagan). Doll’s 8 were next but the remainder of the Buffs struggled to score.

“We missed 7 free throws and had too many turnovers in the beginning,” Snodgrass said of trailing early in the game. “It was a physical game and that might have played a role in that it impeded our ability to drive the ball.”

Southeast, meanwhile, got balanced scoring with three players in double figures — Chalmers, Marcy and Deena Holmes — all with 11 points each.

Statistically, the teams were nearly a mirror-image of each other.

The Lady Buffs shot 14-of-38 from the field (36.8 percent) to Southeast’s 17-of-47 (36.2). The 3-point line was a big difference where the Buffs were 4-of-15 (26.7) to Southeast’s 9-of-26 (34.6). In rebounding, the Buffs came up on the short end of a 28-32 battle on the boards, nabbing 8 offensive and 20 defensive caroms to Southeast’s (12-20). Assists were 11-12, turnovers 13-15, steals 7-8 and blocks 2 each.

The Golden Buffaloes will return home and play at No. 1-seeded Wichita Heights (23-0) on Friday night. Heights rolled over No. 16 seed Wichita Northwest, 64-27.

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Class 6A West Scoreboard
Sub-State Semifinals
No. 1 Sub-State
Wichita Heights 64, Wichita West 27
Wichita Southeast 47, Garden City 43

No. 2 Sub-State
Derby 59, Campus 23
Topeka-Washburn Rural 60, Wichita South 32

No. 3 Sub-State
Liberal 59, Wichita North 23
Topeka High 69, Maize 45

No. 4 Sub-State
Manhattan 67, Lawrence-Free State 21
Wichita East 68, Dodge City 15

Friday’s Sub-State Championships
No. 1–Wichita Southeast (12-11) at Wichita Heights (23-0)
No. 2–Topeka-Washburn Rrual 16-8 at Derby (21-3)
No. 3–Topeka High (16-8) at Liberal (18-3)
No. 4–Wichita East (19-5) at Manhattan (19-5)

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KSHSAA Class 6A
Girls Sub-State Semifinal
WICHITA SOUTHEAST 47, GARDEN CITY 43
Wichita SE (47) — Chalmers 3 3-6 11, Gantt 0 0-2 0, Love 2 0-0 6, Marcy 4 1-1 11, Wall 5 0-0 11, Allen 3 0-0 8, Holmes 0 0-2 0. Totals 17 4-11 47.
Garden City (43) — Hannagan 4 0-0 11, Brown 1 0-0 2, Meng 2 1-4 5, S. Doll 2 4-6 8, Snodgrass 5 6-8 17. Totals 14 11-18 43.

Wichita SE (12-11)…8…15…13…11…–…47
Garden City (13-11)…12…5…13…13…–…43

3-point goals—Wichita SE 9 (Chalmers 2, Love 2, Marcy 2, Wall 1, Allen 2); Garden City 4 (Hannagan 3, Snodgrass 1). Fouls—Wichita SE 15; Garden City 11. Fouled Out–None.