Mistakes doom Buffaloes in loss to Topeka Seaman
Valley Center, KS-24 hours after his team lost to Hays on Friday, Garden City Coach Jacy Holloway could only shake his head.
“We made such silly mistakes,” he said. “It’s so frustrating to go back and watch the film.”
In Thursday’s January Jam opener vs. No. 7 Topeka Seaman, those same mistakes doomed the Buffaloes again.
Tanyon Schafer scored 15 of his game-high 21 points in the first half, all-state quarterback and Emporia-State signee Dalton Cowan added 10, and Topeka Seaman overcame an eight-minute scoring drought to finally put Garden City away 50-39 at Hornets Field House.
In suffering their second straight loss, the Buffaloes turned it over a season-high 22 times.
“When we did things right, we got back in the game,” Holloway said. “But we had way too many mistakes.”
And their defense, which turned things around after an 0-6 start, could not stop Shafer and his front-court mate Jackson Cobb in the early going. The two combined to score the Vikings first 16 points as Topeka Seaman jumped out to a 26-10 lead.
The Vikings connected on 10 of their first 17 shots from the floor.
“They scored pretty easy on us in our man defense,” Holloway explained. “So we had to change it up.”
The change Holloway instituted was switching back into a 3-2 zone, a scheme that helped the brown and white knock off No. 5 Hugoton and sixth-ranked Liberal. And for a stretch on Thursday, it had the Vikings totally confused on the offensive end.
That defensive effort finally awoke the Buffaloes offense, and Carlos Acosta’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of the first quarter started the Garden City (3-8, 2-1) rally. Then Jarrod Springston drained a triple and hit a runner; Griff Brunson added a layup and two free throws before Springston’s final bucket capped an 11-0 surge that pulled the Buffaloes to within five 26-21 at the break.
Topeka Seaman did not score the final 6:15 of the first half.
“We did a lot of good things during that stretch,” Holloway said.
But Vikings veteran skipper Craig Cox countered Holloway’s 3-2 zone with a brilliant chess move of his own, instructing his players to pull the ball out near half court to begin the second half. The strategy paid off as it drew the three defenders guarding the arc towards the ball handler. That allowed the 6-5 Shafer to find his way to the hole, and his layup with 5:54 to play in the third, ended an 8:21 scoreless streak.
“We had a decision to make,” Holloway said. “We could have let them run clock because we were only down five. “But we decided to go to a man again.”
It’s exactly what Cox wanted Garden City to do.
The Vikings got back on kilter, and Cowan’s layup with 2:21 to go in the game gave Topeka Seaman (7-2, 4-1) a 14-point cushion. Their defense then finished the job, holding the Buffaloes scoreless the first 4:00 of the final period.
Springston scored a season-high 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting for Garden City, but turned the ball over four times. Garrett Doll finished with seven points on 2-of-7 from the field, while Brunson and Zac Karlin each scored six.
For the ninth time this season, the Buffaloes shot below 45 percent (13-of-37; 35 percent). They were outrebounded 27-24.
Cobb, who played in his first game for Topeka Seaman since Dec. 16 following a car crash where sustained a fractured vertebrae, tallied nine points. Kobe Bonner had five.
Next up: Garden City vs. Ulysses-Friday, January 20-4:45 p.m. pregame; 5 p.m. tip on 99.9 FM; westernkansasnews.com/kwkr and KWKR mobile app
Other Scores from the January Jam
Valley Center 62, Ulysses 61
Olathe NW 72, Wichita NW 61
KC Turner 48, Maize South 43
