Pictured- Salina South senior guard Brooklyn Jordan

Image courtesy of Yee Mar

GIRLS FINAL: 

MAIZE SOUTH 47

SALINA SOUTH 20

The Lady Cougars had their work cut out for them going up against one of the most talented teams and individual players in all of the AVCTL.

Offensively, South knew they had to execute in the half court and limit the Lady Mavs transition opportunities in order to keep the game close, but neither panned out in the first half.

Establishing the post was made difficult by Maize South fronting Paityn Fritz in the paint, multiple entry passes were stolen in the first half and led to run outs on the other end. Defensively, it was hard to stop the Lady Mavs in transition as they continued to steal the ball and run to the rim off of live ball turnovers.

The toughest player to contain was Maize South junior Jaela Thompson. Thompson can score at all three levels of the court and took turns putting up points in different ways. It started with her attacking the rim at will, then she backed up to her comfort zone and began knocking down mid-range jumpers.

Thompson finished with 28 points.

The Cougars were led in scoring by Paityn Fritz who came alive in the second half to finish with 11. Sophie Daily scored 4 and Brooklyn Jordan and Brylee Moss finished with 2 points each.

Salina South was never able to stop the Thompson avalanche, and ultimately couldn’t overcome Maize South despite playing their hardest.

The Lady Cougars dropped to 9-3 and 4-2 in league play.

BOYS FINAL:

MAIZE SOUTH 54

SALINA SOUTH 29

Friday night tested Salina South’s depth against a Maize South team that features elite size and guard play.

The Cougars learned earlier in the day that starters Kobie Henley and Gavin DeVoe would be sidelined with an illness, forcing head coach Jason Hooper to dive into his bench.

Kyler Webb and Jalen Cheeks replaced the two starters and early in the game, South was searching for offense. It wasn’t found in the opening quarter as the Cougars scored only one point and had eight at halftime.

Given how much offense they were missing, the struggles could be expected.

Defensively, they showed that even when struggling to score, their effort never wavered. Valuable minutes were played by everyone off the bench and even experience in a game that was lopsided could benefit Salina South’s role players moving forward.

Jalen Cheeks led South with 6 points, Easton Wilcox, Jaxon Myers, Sawyer Walker and Caden Stauffer each had 5 points.

Salina South is off till Thursday when they’ll start the 47th annual Salina Invitational Tournament.