State-ranked Hays powers by Lady Buffs
Story Credit – Brett Marshall/GCHS Athletics
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One could imagine that Garden City High School girls’ basketball coach Kelley Snodgrass can visualize where she wants her team to be in the next year and beyond.
All she has to do is look at the Hays Lady Indians that blew into Garden City with a blustery north wind and left with a convincing 69-41 triumph in a Western Athletic Conference contest at The Garden on Friday night.
There’s no surprise at how Hays is doing this year, improving their season overall record to 10-1 and to 2-0 in the double round-robin schedule of the WAC. They have now disposed of their two biggest challengers by more than 20 points. The Lady Indians were ranked No. 9 in Class 5A in the latest Kansas Basketball Coaches Association poll.
“Hays is certainly a tough test,” Snodgrass said afterward. “For us to be better, we’ve got to play better defense and the foul trouble we had really hurt tonight, too.”
The biggest culprit for the Indians was also no surprise as 5-7 sophomore guard Jenna Schmeidler, popped in 21 points, including 5-of-5 free throws, one 3-pointer and a variety of drives to the basket and mid-range jumpers. She finished 7-of-14 from the field, and was a perfect 5-of-5 at the free throw line where she has now made 48 consecutive charities this season and 54 in a row over two seasons.
“She’s a tough one for sure,” Snodgrass said of the 2025 WAC Player of the Year. “But they’ve got other weapons, too, and they hurt us tonight.”
Indeed, part of the veteran cast that goes along with the youthful but experienced Schmeidler made life difficult for the Lady Buffs. Senior forward Zoe Winter, a 5-11 powerhouse, scored a game-high 23 points, including a trio of shots from behind the arc. She finished 9-of-13 shooting from the field and had 7 rebounds.
In all, the Lady Indians had five different players knock down the long range missile shots and the team finished with eight of them. Molly Buckles, a 6-0 senior, finished with 11 points and 7 boards and was also 5-of-5 at the free throw stripe.
“At times, we’re right there but then we have some lapses and we give up second chance baskets,” Snodgrass said. “Every basket has to be earned. The girls continue to fight and that will help us continue to get better.”
For the first half of the game, the Lady Buffs were giving the Lady Indians all they could handle. After being down 19-12 at the end of the first period, the Lady Buffs’ defense tightened up and limited Hays to just 12 points in the second.
But the Hays defense was stingy as well, giving up just 9 points to the Buffs that resulted in a 31-21 Hays advantage at the intermission.
Hays, however, came out and showed their state ranking by scoring the first seven points of the third quarter. They then went on another 10-3 run to take command at 48-26 and finished with a 51-28 lead going to the fourth.
The lead at the end of the game, as a result of a late 3-pointer, resulted in Hays’ largest lead of the night.
With Winter, Schmeidler and Buckles combining for 55 points, the remainder of the team contributed just 14 points.
Freshman Tegan Snodgrass was the lone double-figure scorer for the Buffs, finishing with 14 points on 6-of-8 field goals. Sophomore Mia Hannagan, the team’s leading scorer and one of the top 3-point shooters in Kansas, was limited to 9 points on a trio of treys, all of which came in the fourth quarter.
“They just took her out of the equation,” Snodgrass said. “We’re still trying to find others to score, and we will continue to look for those to step up.”
The Lady Buffs could manage only 33.3 percent field goal percentage (15-of-45) and were just 4-of-21 from 3-point range (19.0 percent). They hit 7-of-13 free throws and grabbed 25 rebounds (11 offensive, 14 defensive). The other stats included 7 assists, 15 turnovers and 4 steals.
Hays, meanwhile, hit a solid 45.3 percent from the field (24-of-53, were 8-of-18 from 3-point range (44.4 percent) and went 13-of-14 at the charity stripe. They had 34 rebounds (14 offensive, 20 defensive) while handing out 15 assists and committing only 8 turnovers. They recorded 7 steals.
The week proved to be challenging as they had faced Liberal, ranked No. 10 in 6A, on Tuesday in a road game against the program that has just been right behind Hays the last couple of seasons. They lost that game 59-54.
Snodgrass and her youthful squad (there are no seniors) will have a full week to prepare for their next game, a Jan. 23 road test at Wichita Southeast. Following that will be the late-January tournament week in which they will travel to Topeka for the Glaciers Edge Capital City Classic.
Pairings for the prestigious tournament were just announced Friday and the Lady Buffs will take on Topeka-Seaman at 3 p.m. on Jan. 29. They are in the upper portion of the eight-team bracket and the other upper bracket will put Topeka-Highland Park against Wichita-Heights (4:30 p.m.).
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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Western Athletic Conference
Game 3
At The Garden
HAYS 69, GARDEN CITY 41
Hays (69) — Schmeidler 7 5-5 21, Humphrey 1 0-0 3, Armbruster 1 0-0 3, Turner 1 0-0 2, Newell 0 1-2 1, Harrington 2 0-0 5, Buckles 3 5-5 11, Winter 9 2-2 23. Totals 24 13-14 69.
Garden City (41) — Powers 2 1-2 6, Hannagan 3 0-0 9, Brown 0 0-2 0, McDonald 2 0-1 4, Meng 1 0-0 2, Korf 0 2-2 2, S. Doll 1 2-2 4, Snodgrass 6 2-4 14. Totals 15 7-13 41.
Hays (10-1/2-0)…19…12…20…18…–…69
Garden City (7-5/1-2)…12…9…7…13…–…41
3-point goals—Hays 8 (Schmeidler 2, Humphrey 1, Armbruster 1, Harrington 1, Winter 3); Garden City 4 (Hannagan 3, Powers 1). Fouls—Hays 16; Garden City 16. Fouled out—Hays (Humphrey).
