By Dustin Armbruster
Girls
Hays 45 – Liberal 41
The Hays High Lady Indians won for the first time in 2015 with a 45-41 in over Liberal on Friday night. The Lady Indians trailed after the first quarter 12-11 and 18-16 midway through the second. Hays used a 7-0 run to go up by as many as five in that quarter and led at half time 25-22.
Highlights
The third quarter added the separation the Lady Indians needed for the victory. Hays outscored Liberal 13-3 in the third and led 38-25 entering the fourth. Liberal scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter to get with in six and even closed the gap to five, twice in the final 65 seconds.
Coach Kirk Maska
Hays ends the nine game losing streak with the victory and picks up their first Western Athletic Conference win in nearly two years. Hays is now 4-12 on the season and 1-4 in the WAC. Liberal drops to 3-13 and 1-4.
Audra Schmeidler led the Indians with 16 points, including 8 of 10 from the free throw line.
Boys
Liberal 57 – Hays 54
It literally came down to the last second. Hays unfortunately was not the team with the ball.
Hays scored 17 points over the first 5:40 of the game, taking a 17-11 lead over Liberal. The Indians though would score just two points over the next seven minutes, allowing Liberal to take a 15-19 lead. Liberal pushed the first half lead as high as seven points before Hays closed it to 28-24 by half time.
Highlights
Hays trimmed the lead down to three on three occasions in the third quarter, the final coming at the end of the third at 37-34. Liberal seemed to have an answer every time the Indians made a push in the fourth quarter. Hays fell behind by nine at 52-43 with 2:07 remaining. Liberal would make just 2 of 8 free throws over the final 1:49 allowing Hays to close the gap. Keith Dryden and Isaiah Nunnery combined for three, three pointers in the final 1:34 to tie the game at 54 with :23 seconds remaining. Liberal elected to not take a time out and Cade Hinkle’s 31 foot falling-away prayer was answered when the ball swirled around three times and fell through the net. Liberal took the 57-54 win as time expired.
Coach Rick Keltner
Liberal had the best three point shooting game of the year making 10 of 17 attempts. Hinkle scored a career high 19 for Liberal.
Hays was led in scoring by the 17 of Keith Dryden and 13 of Isaiah Nunnery.
Liberal improves to 10-6 on the year and 2-3 in conference. Hays falls to 10-6 and 3-2. Hays has lost four of the last five games by a total of 15 points.
Hays is on the road Tuesday in Abilene.