Scott City girls pull away from Cowgirls

Scott City, Kan. (westernkansasnews.com)–For the first 10 minutes of the game, the Goodland Cowgirls played with nothing to lose, and led for good chunk of the first half. With the Cowgirls looking for the big upset, Scott City woke up and took the game over in the second quarter and didn’t look back, defeating Goodland for the third time this year in a 53-27 victory to open up sub-state play Tuesday night at Scott Community High School.

Scott City would score the first five points of the game, but saw the Cowgirls rally for a 9-3 run over the final 5:22 of the first quarter to take a 9-8 lead after the first quarter. The Lady Beavers would only make five field goals in the first half, but hit eight out of 10 free throws. After Goodland (1-20) made it 11-8 with 6:14 left in the first half, it was all Scott City. The Lady Beavers went on a 12-2 run to close out the final 5:36 to take a 20-13 halftime lead. They used two runs of nine straight in the second and third quarter to open the game up.

In the second half, Scott City (17-4) scored the first six points to build up a 26-13 with 6:06 left in the third quarter. Both teams would trade points, and then the Beavers ended the third quarter on an 11-0 run, capped off by a deep three pointer by Macie Price to push the lead to 40-17 after three quarters. Scott City would outscore Goodland 32-8 in the second and third quarters combined. In the fourth quarter, the Lady Beavers would continue to pull away and led late by as many as 28 points at 53-25, before settling for the 53-27 win.

Emily Smith led Scott City with 10 points, and Kaitlyn Roberts added nine. Overall, the Lady Beavers had nine players score, with six of them scoring at least five points. They were 11-18 at the free throw line and had 16 turnovers. Goodland got 10 points from Brooke Drennan. The Cowgirls finished with 25 turnovers and were just 2-10 from the three throw line.

With the win, Scott City wins three games in a season over Goodland for the first time, and have won four straight in the series for the first time since 1992-95. It was also the first time in five sub-state games that the Lady Beavers have defeated the Cowgirls. Goodland closed the season with 17 straight losses, and finished with their worst record since 2011-12. Scott City’s 17 wins are the most since he 2008-09 season, and hosted their first sub-state quarterfinal game since 2010.

Scott City will take on Colby on Friday night at 7:30 at the Colby Community Building. The Lady Eagles defeated Southwestern Heights 48-25 on Tuesday. In the 6 pm matchup, it will be Cimarron facing Norton in a battle of the Bluejays. Cimarron rallied from a halftime deficit to defeat Lakin 45-41, while Norton took care of Phillipsburg 45-34.

Coach Sarah McCormick Postgame