Scott City squeaks out a pair of wins in Colby

Colby, Kan. (westernkansasnews.com)–The Scott City Beavers hit the road for their second straight game. This time, it was the league opener for the Beavers, as they faced the Colby Eagles. For Scott City its the first of what could be many trips to the Colby Community Building this year. Not only do they have three more games guaranteed at the Oasis on the Plains in January in the Colby Orange & Black, the Community Building will play host to the Class 3A Sub-State in March. Fortunately for Scott City, they were able to spoil the Eagles home opener with second half rallies. The Lady Beavers held off a late charge by Colby to hang on for the 44-37 win, while the Beaver boys hung on for the 43-35 win.

Girls
It was about as bad of start for Scott City as they could have ever imagined. With three early turnovers and an 0-9 performance from the field gave Colby the early momentum and the 10-0 lead five minutes in. In fact, the Lady Beavers did not score for the first six minutes of the game. Scott City would trail 12-5 after the first quarter. A Kaitlyn Roberts three pointer at the end of the first quarter would help lead the Lady Beavers into an 8-0 run to pull to within 12-10 with 6:04 left in the half. Colby scored the next four points, only to see Scott City score the games final six points of the half to tie the game up at 16.

In the second half, the Lady Beavers finally got some shots to go down. It took a little over two minutes for Scott City (4-1, 1-0 GWAC) to take their first lead of the game. They led 18-16 and then took the lead for good with 4:30 remaining in the third quarter at 20-18. Over the third period, the Lady Beavers used a 16-10 run to take a 32-26 lead after three quarters, highlighted by a Macie Price layup to closed the third period. An 8-2 run would give Scott City a 40-28 lead with 4:51 remaining. Colby (2-4, 0-2) would make one more push, scoring the games next seven points in under two minutes to pull to within 40-35 with 1:41 left. The Lady Beavers would score four of the final six points of the game to assure themselves the victory.

Emily Smith led the balanced attack with 10 points, while Emily Weathers and Macie Price added eight apiece. The Lady Beavers would go just 7-15 from the foul line and dominated the boards 37-23. Erin Krannawitter led Colby with 11 points, all in the second half, while Kora Schindler added 10. The Lady Eagles struggled at the charity line, shooting just 3-7 for the game.

With the win, Scott City increases their win streak against Colby to five straight, which is a school record. At 4-1, it is their best start through five games since the 2008-09 season. Colby has now lost 12 consecutive GWAC games.

Coach Sarah McCormick Postgame

Boys
While the nightcap wasn’t the prettiest of games played, the game would be tightly contested until the very end. The first quarter alone saw 10 lead changes and two ties. After the score was tied at 13 after the first period, the scoring slowed down a little bit in the second quarter. Scott City took a 16-15 lead with 5:11 left in the first half on the Marshal Faurot three-point play, only to see Colby respond with their biggest run of the night. A 6-0 Eagle run gave them their biggest lead at 21-16 with 3:51 left in the half. The Eagles would eventually take a 22-19 halftime lead.

Both teams were ice cold from the floor to begin the second half, but it would be Scott City (2-3, 1-0 GWAC) that would eventually warm up. It took a little over three minutes for them to get the first points of the third period, and eventually took their final lead of the game at 23-22 with 2:25 left in the third frame, on a Jordan Horn jumper in the lan. The Beavers used an 11-2 third quarter run to go up 30-24 after three quarters of play. For a majority of the fourth quarter, both teams would trade baskets. While Scott City would go up by as many as seven in the final period for the longest time, Colby (1-5, 0-2) could not get it any closer than four points. The Eagles did have a couple of chances late, with the last coming at 39-35 with a little over a minute left in the game. Scott City would hit four of their final six free throws of the game.

Leading the scoring for Scott City was Jordan Horn with 12 points, while Marshal Faurot added 11. Scott City was 9-14 from the free throw line, and committed 21 turnovers. Both teams ended up with 33 rebounds. Colby got a game-high 15 points from Calvin Stapp, with 11 coming in the first half. The Eagles had 12 turnovers and were 7-9 at the foul line.

With the win, Scott City has now won 18 straight games in the series since 2010, and was their ninth straight win over the Eagles in Colby. The Eagles dropped their 17th consecutive GWAC game, dating back to late in the 2015-16 season.

Coach Brian Gentry Postgame

Next game for Scott City will be Friday, January 5, 2018 at Ulysses, while Colby will be at Hugoton that same night for their next game.