Buffaloes fall to Kapaun in 7th place game at Newton

Too many turnovers and too many missed shots cost the Garden City Lady Buffaloes again, as they fell to the Kapaun Mt. Carmel Lady Crusaders, 39 – 31, in the 7th place game at the Newton Invitational Tournament on Saturday.

The Buffaloes committed 16 turnovers to the Crusaders’ 13, but Kapaun seemed to turn Garden City’s miscues into points, while the Buffs just saw opportunities slip away.

After the game was tied at 3 early, Kapaun outscored Garden City 9 – 3 to build a 12 – 6 1st quarter lead. The Crusaders hit 5 treys in the opening half to build an 11-point lead at the break, 27 – 16. Alyssa Long hit Garden City’s only three in the 1st half and led the team with 6 points at halftime.

The Buffaloes cut the lead to 8 a couple of times in the 3rd quarter, but couldn’t get closer, going the last 2:45 of the period without scoring, as the Crusaders pushed the lead to 13, 35 – 22. A trey by Long in the 4th quarter cut the lead to 10, but the Buffs would go more than three minutes without scoring again and Kapaun pushed the lead back to 13. Garden City would make a push in the final minute and a trey by Josie Calzonetti made it a 7-point game with less than 30 seconds to play, but that’s as close as the Buffaloes could get.

Calzonetti led Garden City with 14 points, 9 coming in the 2nd half, followed by Long with 9. Rachel Hastings led Kapaun Mt. Carmel with 11. The Buffaloes hit 12 of 18 free throws, while the Crusaders hit just 8 of 22.

Garden City returns to action Tuesday night when Dodge City comes to town.