Lady Buffs ground Lady Eagles, 49-36

Story Credit: Brett Marshall/GCHS Athletics

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When the Garden City Lady Buffaloes learned last week that their Jan. 23 road game at Wichita Southeast was called off due to the winter storm that swept across Kansas, head coach Kelley Snodgrass wasn’t sure how her team would respond to what became an 11-day layoff.

Snodgrass can rest more easily after Tuesday night’s 49-36 victory at The Garden over the Colby Lady Eagles. The victory improved the Buffs to 8-5 overall while Colby fell to 6-7.

“A lot of times when you get a game cancelled, the practice is not very good,” Snodgrass said. “But we had a very good practice so I’m glad to see that we were able to work on our stuff and brush off some of the rust.”

The Lady Buffs will barely have a chance now to catch their breath as they hit the road on Wednesday to Topeka where they will begin a three-games in three-day marathon in the Glaciers Edge Capital City Classic.

Snodgrass’ team will be up against Topeka-Seaman, a Class 5A school, in the tournament opener at 3 p.m. Thursday. They are on the upper half of the tournament bracket which also includes Topeka-Highland Park and Wichita-Heights.

In Tuesday’s non-conference battle with Colby, Snodgrass had to defend against the Lady Eagles’ elite scorer Shaylee Holzmeister, a 6-1 forward who pumped in 25 points to keep her team within range of the Buffs most of the night.

“She’s a tough one to guard for us,” Snodgrass said of the left-handed Holzmeister who scored on a variety of shots around the basket to go along with a number of mid-range jumpers. “The others didn’t hurt us, but we’ve still got to do a better job against the best scorers.”

The Lady Buffs jumped out to a 16-8 lead after one quarter by getting a trio of 3-pointers from three different players — Myah Korf, ThayLee Powers and Mia Hannagan. The offense cooled a little in the second stanza, as Colby kept it close and went in at halftime down 27-20.

Things didn’t improve in the third quarter, either, as Colby outscored the Buffs, 11-09 to pull within five, 36-31, heading to the fourth quarter.

Colby got the first points of the fourth quarter to draw within three, but then Korf and Hannagan drilled back-to-back 3-pointers to put them back up by nine, 42-33.

Garden City’s defense came to the rescue in the final eight minutes, limiting the Eagles to just five points while scoring 13. Still, the Eagles were within seven at 43-36 with 2:51 remaining but couldn’t score the rest of the way while the Buffs capped it off with a mini 6-0 run.

Freshman Tegan Snodgrass led the Buffs’ scoring with 15 points while Korf, who nailed a trio of 3-pointers, was close behind with 13. Powers contributed 8 while Livi Meng and Mia Hannagan tallied 6 points each.

The 3-point line was good to the Buffs as they scorched the net from long range with 8 of the treys while making only seven baskets inside the arc.

“We’ve got good shooters, and I don’t want to put the lid on the basket for them,” Snodgrass said. “Myah got hot and also attacked the basket. I don’t want our players to be one dimensional. Little by little, we’re getting better, but we need to do better on rebounding.”

The trip to Topeka is a new schedule for the Buffs, and the field couldn’t be much tougher.

The bottom half of the bracket has Topeka High facing Derby at 6 p.m. and Topeka-Shawnee Heights taking on Lawrence High at 7:30 p.m.

Four of the eight teams are currently ranked by the KBCA. Seaman is NO. 6 in 5A; Topeka HIgh is No. 8 and Derby No. 1 in 6A while Shawnee Heights is No. 9 in 5A.

Consolation and championship semifinals will be played on Jan. 30 and then placing games will be on Sat., Jan. 31.

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GIRLS
Tuesday, Jan. 27
At The Garden
GARDEN CITY 49, COLBY 36
Colby (36) — Holzmeister 9 7-11 25, Cheney 1 0-0 2, Flanagin 2 0-0 6, Tubbs 1 1-2 3. Totals 13 8-13 36.
Garden City (49) — Powers 2 2-2 8, Hannagan 2 0-0 6, Meng 2 2-6 6, Korf 5 0-0 13, S. Doll 0 1-2 1, Snodgrass 4 6-7 15. Totals 15 11-17 49.

Colby (6-7)…8…12…11…5…–…36
Garden City (8-5)…16…11…9…13…–…49

3-point goals—Colby: 2 (Flanagin 2); Garden City: 8 (Powers 2, Hannagan 2, Korf 3, Snodgrass 1). Fouls—Colby: 16; Garden City: 10. Fouled out–None.