Picture courtesy of Tanner Colvin

Salina South’s boys and girls continued their early-season momentum against crosstown rival Salina Central on Friday night, sweeping a doubleheader from the Mustangs at Kansas Wesleyan’s Mabee Arena.

The Cougar boys trailed by three after three quarters but took control down the stretch to edge Central, 59-55, while the girls went in front to stay in the third quarter to prevail, 51-32.

Salina South boys 59, Salina Central 55

Central rallied from a 12-point deficit in the second quarter behind a dominating performance by sophomore guard Kaeden Nienke and took a 45-42 advantage to the fourth quarter but could not hold on as South outscored the Mustangs 5-1 in the final minute to remain undefeated.

After Nienke scored the last two of his game-high 26 points from the free-throw line to tie it at 54-54 with 1:16 left, South went in front for good on a hard drive to the basket by Easton Wilcox at the one-minute mark. Central cut it to one point when Grant Ostmeyer hit the second of two foul shots at 35.8 seconds, but the Mustangs did not score again.

South iced it when Wilcox hit the first of two free throws with 22.1 seconds on the clock but missed the second, only to have Gavin DeVoe corral a loose ball rebound and lay it in. The Cougars then came up with a steal before Central could get a shot off and celebrated their first victory in the series since the 2022-23 season.

South had three players score in double figures, led by Wilcox and Sawyer Walker with 13 points each and Jaxon Myers with 10. Kobie Henley led the Cougars to a 29-26 rebounding advantage with eight, while DeVoe had eight points and seven boards.

For Central (1-4), Nienke also was the leading rebounder with six. The Mustangs also got 13 points from Greyson Jones, plus 10 points and five rebounds from Ostmeyer.

South, which won just seven games last season, now is 5-0 heading into the final week before Christmas break. The Cougars close out the 2025 portion of the season on the road at Newton on Tuesday and Valley Center on Friday.

Central travels to Goddard on Tuesday and plays host to Newton on Friday.

Salina South girls 51, Salina Central 32

Salina South led 25-20 at halftime and then outscored Central in the third period, 13-5, to pull away. The Mustangs never got it back to single digits in the fourth quarter.

Center Paityn Fritz led all scorers with 21 points and guard Brookly Jordan added 17 with five 3-pointers to lead South, which improved to 4-1 with the victory. They combined to score all 25 of the Cougars’ first-half points.

Fritz also grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds to give South a 40-29 advantage on the boards. South made 9 of 19 3-point attempts while holding Central to 2-for-17 behind the arc.

Lexie Guerrero led Central (1-4) with 13 points, followed by Macy O’Hara with six points and seven rebounds.