Buffaloes overcome third-quarter deficit; one win from state

Photos by Adam Shrimplin

Garden City, KS-When Derrick Sexton departed for North Carolina back in January, Head Coach Jacy Holloway was left scrambling his rotation.

More than a month later, Sexton returned to the Buffalo bench, and his third-quarter surge pushed Garden City within a game of returning to the state tournament.

Sexton scored all six of his points in the third quarter, Jayden Crook added 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting, and Garden City overcame a nine-point, third-quarter deficit to beat Haysville Campus 44-42 in the 6A sub state semifinals Wednesday night at the Garden. With the win, the Buffaloes advance to play Derby in the sub state finals Saturday night.

“It’s good to have Derrick back,” Holloway said after the game. “I like how our team responded.”

Things were looking pretty bleak once Steele Chapman hit two free throws to put Haysville Campus (8-13) up 30-21 with 2:59 remaining in the third. But that’s when Sexton awoke. The senior hit a hook shot followed by a fade away jumper and an 18-footer that cut the deficit to three with 49 seconds to play in the period. After Tanner Leslie answered with a tough floater for the Colts, Carlos Acosta knocked down his only field goal of the night: a 3-pointer from the left wing that pulled the brown and white to within two, 34-32 going into the fourth.

“I called a timeout in the third quarter and told our guys we had to defend better,” Holloway said. “And we responded.”

Just call the fourth quarter Lamb time.

Trailing by 3, Kyler Lamb drilled a 3-pointer from the right wing to tie the score at 35. Less than two minutes later, Lamb did it again, from the same spot to put the Buffaloes on top for good.

“I thought Kyler and Derrick really got us going in the second half,” Holloway said. “But once we stopped turning the ball over and started playing defense, we felt pretty good.”

Holloway could only smile a couple of possessions later, when his team zipped the ball from side-to-side. Once it found Crook on the right wing, the Buffaloes used action off the weak side to stymie the Colts. Elliott gravitated from the right block to the elbow, then dove to the rim before Crook found him with a perfect bounce pass that resulted in an easy two-handed layup that gave Garden City their largest lead of the night, 40-35 with 3:09 to play.

“We were patient and got good looks,” Holloway said. “We took good shots tonight.”

Garden City ended the game shooting 43 percent (16-of-37) and 4-of-7 from deep. But they missed eight free throws, which nearly came back to bite them in the end.

Sterling Chapman’s layup cut the Buffalo lead to three with 2:45 remaining. After Elliott split a pair of free throws, Rico Harvey splashed home two freebies to make it a two-point game.

“We need to do a better job of hitting free throws; that’s for sure,” Holloway said.

Crook and Jarrod Springston combined to go 3-of-6 from the line down the stretch, and following Tanner Leslie’s desperation 3 from the right corner that pulled Haysville Campus to within one, Crook left the door open for the Colts to steal the game when he split a pair at the stripe.

With five seconds left, Haysville Campus had one last chance to force overtime or win it. But the Colts never got a shot off as the ball went through (Steele) Chapman’s hands on the left wing, giving Garden City their second straight, come-from-behind victory.

Lamb finished with eight points and three rebounds for the Buffaloes, who improved to 2-1 all-time vs. the Colts. Elliott netted eight and three rebounds and Springston had six points and seven boards.

Cade Howard paced the Colts with 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting. (Steele) Chapman added nine, and Leslie had seven.

“We’ve been in this position before,” Holloway said. “It was just a matter of getting everything together, and we did that tonight.”

The first half was a track meet with the lead changing hands four times. Haysville Campus built a four-point edge late in the first quarter only to have Springston hit a reverse layup followed by Crook’s transition finger roll to tie the game at 11 going into the second. Garden City then grabbed the lead on Lamb’s scoop shot. But it lasted only a minute as Howard’s layup sparked a quick 5-0 surge that had the Colts up by three. Haysville Campus led by one at the break.

Next up: Garden City at Derby (6A sub state finals)-Saturday, March 3-5:45 p.m. pregame; 6 p.m. tip on 99.9 FM; westernkansasnews.com/kwkr and KWKR mobile app