Buffaloes survive late scare from Campus; advance to substate finals

Highlights

Photos by Adam Shrimplin

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Garden City, KS-The clock could not hit zero fast enough for Jacy Holloway.

But when it finally did on Wednesday night, the seventh-year coach had his team within one game of reaching the state tournament.

Evan Allen-Mader scored 11 points and pulled down a season-high eight rebounds off the bench, Garrett Doll also tallied 11, and Garden City advanced to the substate finals with a heart-palpitating, 50-46 victory over Haysville-Campus in the 6A substate semifinals at the Garden.

The Buffaloes will play at Wichita North on Friday, following the Redskins come-from-behind, 59-57 victory over Dodge City.

“I’m just relieved we won,” Holloway said. “We just turned the ball over way too much tonight.”

And they came at the worst possible time.

Demarcus Elliott has just hit a layup to put the Buffaloes on top 37-23 with 7:26 left in the fourth. But like a tidal wave, Haysville-Campus (4-17, 2-10) roared back, scoring nine straight points to cut the Garden City lead to five.

“There were some anxious moments, I can tell you that,” Holloway said with a smile. “But we got through it.”

They did, but boy did Demetrius Schley keep the pressure on the brown and white down the stretch.

The senior guard was sensational in the fourth, scoring 10 of his 13 points in the final period, and his 3-pointer from the right corner capped an 18-4 run that pulled the Colts to within three 44-41 with 1:51 to go. He added another trey 60 seconds later that made it 49-46, before getting a little help from Garden City (10-11, 5-3).

“Turnovers nearly cost us,” Holloway said. “We were very careless at the end of the game.”

Leading by three with 30 seconds remaining, the normally sure-handed Griff Brunson was called for a travel, giving the ball back to the Colts with a chance to tie.

“We knew at that point, where they (Haysville Campus) were going,” Holloway said.”

The veteran coached guessed right as Colts’ skipper Chris Davis put the ball in Schley’s hands again. But instead of going for a tying triple, the senior drove at Jarrod Springston, who moved sideways with Haysville-Campus’s leading scorer, eventually inducing a travel.

“We played pretty good defense at times in this game,” Holloway said. “They stepped up when it counted.”

Zac Karlin hit 1-of-2 free throws with six seconds left making it a two-possession game, and sealing Holloway’s fifth postseason victory at Garden City.

Karlin finished with 10 points and six rebounds. Springston, Brunson and Elliott added six points apiece.

“When we do things right, we are pretty good,” Holloway said. “I’ve been saying that all year long. It’s when we get away from stuff or get out of our comfort zone-that’s when we struggle.”

Tyler Kahmann tallied 15 points for Haysville-Campus, who lost their seventh straight game. Cade Howard finished with six.

“We know what type of environment we are walking into on Friday,” Holloway said. “But we have an opportunity in front of us.”

In the first quarter, it was the Colts bringing the fight, scoring five straight points, sparked by Kahmann’s 3-pointer from the top of the key. Haysville-Campus led by three, three separate times in the opening stanza.

But the second quarter is where things fell apart for a team who had won just one playoff game in the past two decades. Garden City outscored the Colts 11-4 over the second eight minutes and held them to just 2-of-8 shooting with four turnovers.

Doll’s 3-pointer from the right wing finished off a 9-0 run that put the Buffaloes up 20-13. Only Mateo Martinez’s layup with five seconds to go in the half ended the spurt, and Garden City had a 20-15 edge at the break.

The Buffaloes stretched the advantage to 13 in the third, thanks to 3-pointers by Karlin and Doll. Sprinkle in Karlin’s elbow jumper and Mader’s layup, and Garden City had a 33-20 advantage with 2:37 left in the period. They were up 12 going to the fourth.

Next up: Garden City at Wichita North-6:45 p.m. pregame; 7 p.m. tip on 99.9 FM; westernkansasnews.com/kwkr and KWKR mobile app