Buffaloes split with Indians in Hays

Boys

Hays, KS-Garden City had not won a game in Hays since Jan. 16, 2015. And that unenviable task was made even more difficult on Friday night when junior Tye Davis did not make the trip.

Still, the Buffaloes went blow-for-blow with the arguably the best shooting team in the state. In the end though, the Indians delivered a dramatic victory, fueled by sharpshooter Cole Murphy.

Murphy scored 19 points, including the go-ahead layup with three seconds left as Hays came back to beat Garden City 52-50 at Indians Field House. It was the Buffaloes eighth straight loss to Hays.

“I thought our guys played pretty inspired without Tye,” Garden City Coach Jacy Holloway said afterwards. “It was definitely a blow, but they played for him.”

With Davis sitting back at home, Garden City came out as the aggressor, building a seven-point lead midway through the second quarter on the heels of back-to-back baskets by Kyler Lamb. But Hays (12-6, 6-0) stormed right back, and Tradgon McCrae’s 3-pointer from the left wing with 56 seconds remaining in the half tied the game at 23. It stayed that way going into the locker room.

“You knew they would make a run,” Holloway said. “It was how we would respond to it.”

The Buffaloes answered the call in the third quarter, getting a 3-pointer from Jayden Crook, a jumper from Carlos Acosta and a layup from Demarcus Elliot that put them up seven, 30-23 90 seconds into the second half. But as they did in the first half, the Indians answered with a fury. McCrae buried his second 3-pointer of the game followed by back-to-back long balls by Murphy that put Hays up 39-32. Ethan Nunnery added two free throws after Elliott was slapped with a technical foul, and Murphy went 1-of-2 at the line, capping off a 16-0 run that put the Indians up 10 with 1:58 remaining in the third.

“I tried to slow their run down by calling a timeout,” Holloway said. “They can get hot in a hurry.”

Down by eight going into the final period, the Buffaloes turned to Acosta, who singlehandedly pulled Garden City back into the game. The sophomore hit a spectacular driving layup where he split two defenders before following that up with a jumper and a 3-pointer, closing the deficit to three, 50-47 with 2:10 remaining.

“He (Acosta) is pretty heady for just being a sophomore,” Holloway said. “He was fantastic tonight.”

After getting a defensive stop, Jarrod Springston grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back home to make it a one-point game. Then, in the closing seconds, Garrett Doll drove to the rim and was fouled. The senior missed the first free throw, and after a Hays’ timeout, rattled home the second, polishing off a 10-0 run that tied the game at 50 with 26 seconds to play.

“Give Hays a ton of credit; they ran a play that a lot of college teams run,” Holloway said. “And they ran it well.”

With the game tied, Nunnery walked the ball into the frontcourt before dishing off on the right wing to Kyler Koenke. With the Buffaloes dead set on not allowing Murphy to get loose for 3, the Indians put the senior guard in motion. And following a pin down screen at the elbow, Murphy popped free, caught Koenke’s perfect pass, and laid the ball in softly off the glass for a 52-50 lead with three seconds left.

“Carlos was great tonight, but he was pretty hard on himself after that last play,” Holloway said.

It may have been Acosta’s assignment, but the play was ran brilliantly by an Indians squad that won the game despite seeing their streak of hitting 10 or more 3’s end at 14 straight gamed. They were 8-of-25.

Nunnery finished the game with 10 points and seven rebounds for Hays, who bounced back from a disappointing showing on Tuesday night vs. Abilene. Dylan Ruder had nine points and four boards off the bench, and McCrae, who torched Garden City for 36 in January, had six on 2-of-5 shooting.

Elliott was sensational again, scoring 14 points on 7-of-11 from the field for Garden City, who lost out on a chance for at least a share of the league crown. Acosta tallied 13 and Crook had 12.

Next up: Garden City at Liberal, Tuesday, Feb. 20-7:30 p.m. tip on 99.9 FM; westernkansasnews.com/kwkr and KWKR mobile app

Girls

Hays, KS-On Tuesday night vs. Dodge City, the Buffaloes could not buy a bucket, as their offense lacked any sort of zest.

Through the first four minutes of Friday night’s showdown in Hays, Garden City appeared prime for a repeat performance. That is until Matt Pfeifer’s team finally said enough is enough.

Josie Calzonetti drained 13-of-14 free throws, finishing with 19 points and 13 rebounds, Julie Calzonetti added 12, and Garden City ended a six-game losing streak to the Indians with a 50-36 win at Indians Field House.

“We knew if we played good defense, our offense would eventually follow,” Pfeifer said.

Despite the win, Pfeifer wouldn’t mind if the first four minutes were completely erased from the ledger.

Hays (11-7, 4-2) scored the first five points; then added a Tasiah Nunnery 3 and a layup by Savannah Schneider that put them up 12-2 with 4:00 to go in the first.

“We needed to get going somehow,” Pfeifer explained. “And we just ran our stuff and shots started to fall.”

Beth Guymon canned a triple to close the first and (Julie) Calzonetti drained a jumper to cut it to six early in the second. She added a free throw and another shot from the elbow, (Josie) Calzonetti hit a driving layup before Kensi Pietz added two second-chance points that tied the game at 14 at the break. It was an incredible collapse by Hays, who missed 19 of their final 20 shots to close the first half.

“Whatever it takes to win,” Pfeifer said. “Julie and Josie played really well. And we are very confident in Julie’s ability.”

The Buffaloes never looked back in the second half once Guymon’s second long ball of the night put them up three, 19-16. Julie (Calzonetti) added two buckets, and (Josie) Calzonetti hit two free throws, and Garden City (6-13, 2-5) had a 29-23 edge going into the fourth.

“I played a little reverse psychology on them after Tuesday night’s game,” Pfeifer said. “We were terrible at the line, so we didn’t even practice them the last couple of days.”

Whatever works, right? And in this case, it did.

Garden City connected on 15-of-21 free throws (71 percent) over the final eight minutes with (Josie) Calzonetti splashing home 7-of-8 freebies in the fourth, as the Buffaloes outscored the Indians 21-13 in the final period. Incredibly, Garden City’s last 15 points of the game came at the line.

“That’s a good percentage, considering what we shot on Tuesday,” said Pfeifer, whose team was just 7-of-18 vs. Dodge City.

Guymon scored nine points, but was just 2-of-10 from the field. Felicity Rodriguez added four, including a critical three-point play early in the fourth that stretched the Garden City lead to nine.

Schneider paced the Indians with 11 points and five rebounds. Nunnery tallied nine and Isabel Robben, who was dealing with a hand injury, scored seven.

Next up: Garden City at Liberal-Tuesday, Feb. 20-5:45 p.m. pregame; 6 p.m. tip on 99.9 FM; westernkansasnews.com/kwkr and KWKR mobile app