GIRLS FINAL

LIFE PREP 63

SALINA CENTRAL 39

The Lady Mustangs entered Saturday’s fifth-place game fresh off a comeback win over TMP, in which they rallied from an eight-point deficit at the end of the third quarter and closed the game on an 18–3 run to secure their first victory of the season.

Unfortunately Saturday included facing a Life Prep team with personnel unlike anything Central had seen through the first two games of the tournament. Life Prep had size and elite shooting at their primary positions.

Life Prep senior point guard Lili Szabo splashed seven first half three pointers and in doing so, outscored the Lady Mustangs as a team in the half. Her skills were on full display. With her elite shooting comes a shifty but controlled handle of the basketball that allowed her to create space, which wasn’t always necessary as she made several shots from several feet behind the arc. Szabo finished with 28 points.

Down substantially at halftime, Central continued to focus on what they could control and that was the quality of their own shots. Junior Grace Ostmeyer scored all nine of her points in the second half and junior Makambri Hastings poured in a game-high 16 points which featured eight in the fourth quarter and four made threes.

With the loss, the Lady Mustangs placed sixth in the girls bracket of the Hays City Shootout.

After three games in three days, a well deserved day off awaits the Lady Mustangs but their next game comes quick with a trip to Manhattan set for Tuesday night.

BOYS FINAL

BLUE VALLEY 93

SALINA CENTRAL 34

A tough test awaited Salina Central when they arrived at Hays High School on Saturday. The Blue Valley Northwest Huskies were champions of the boys bracket in last year’s Hays City Shootout and they returned most the roster that carried it.

The Mustangs were thrown into the pressure cooker immediately and it manifested itself with turnovers. The pressure was quite literally applied full court, and made initiating the offense impossible at times for Central. Multiple backcourt turnovers turned into layups for Blue Valley and after the total reached double digits, the game was out of reach.

Blue Valley was able to get whatever they liked on the offensive end, most of it wide open. Back door cuts resulted in easy layups and making the extra pass led to open three-pointers.

“We got exposed.” said head coach Chris Fear. “We have to learn from this.”

Central was led in scoring by senior Greyson Jones with 12 and sophomore Kaeden Nienke with eight.

The Mustangs will look to bounce back against Manhattan on Tuesday.