Oh so close; Busters upset in Liberal
Liberal, Kan (westernkansasnews.com)-If Garden City didn’t have bad luck Friday afternoon, they wouldn’t have any luck at all.
The theme of the day: pointblank misses, and Frank Phillips took full advantage of all 51 Garden City misfires. Quame Edwards scored 17 points, and the Plainsmen drilled nine 3-pointers in a 76-69 upset win over the upstart Busters on day one of the 2014 Days Inn Classic at the Green House.
“The biggest thing is that we were still living off the Trinity Valley win,” Assistant Coach Duncan Hudson said afterwards. “I mean it was a good win for us, but it’s taken its toll on us the last week.”
And it showed. After building a 25-15 lead following Devon Anderson’s put back on a Zach Beard missed three, the Busters went scoreless the final 6:30 of the half, while Frank Phillips (5-1) reeled off 20 unanswered to points to take a 35-25 lead into halftime.
Three times in the second half, the Plainsmen built 12 point leads, only to see Garden City battle back to within striking distance. Right out of the gates, the Busters sliced the deficit in half by scoring the first five points. But as they did the entire game, Frank Phillips responded with their own 7-0 spurt to push the lead to 42-30.
“I’d rather us lose now in this building then in January,” Hudson said. “We need to learn from this and get better.”
Then minutes later, the Busters used a 13-2 run-capped off by Tykei Hallman’s powerful, one-handed stuff to pull to within a single point 44-43. But the Plainsmen answered with the long ball; the culprit: Edwards, who elevated over Jonathan Bell and swished it from straight away. The sophomore from Cypress Springs, TX finished 4-of-8 from downtown.
Trailing 72-60 with less than two minutes to play, Garden City had one last gasp. Zach Beard canned three perimeter jumpers; two of those from beyond the arc-cutting the lead to four with 25 remaining. Then Springer intercepted a ball at half court and had an open lane to the basket. But the sophomore missed an easy layup and just like that the threat was over.
“Hopefully we get better from this loss,” Hudson said. “Let’s see how we respond tomorrow.”
Springer totaled 15 points but was just 6-of-20 from the field. Anderson punched in his second double-double with 13 points and a season-high 12 rebounds. Beard added 13.
Rasheed Swanston netted 14 points for Frank Phillips. Stan Whitaker added 12; Julian Thomas with 11.
Next up: Garden City vs. Clarendon, TX-Saturday, November 15-3:45 p.m. pregame; 4 p.m. tip on AM 1030 KBUF; kbufmobile.com and mobile app: KBUF
