Dustin Armbruster
The Hays High Indians continued their way through the Western Athletic Conference on Friday night hosting Garden City. The two teams played to open the season at the Hays City Shootout with the Indians winning both games.
Girls
Hays 50 – Garden City 35
Hays never trailed in the first half, using runs of 14-3 and 12-3 to build their lead as high as 14 points before half time. Garden City scored seven straight to end the first quarter to make the score 19-14, but that was as close as the Buffaloes would get for the rest of the half. The Indians held Garden City without a point until the 2:50 mark of the second quarter. Hays went to the locker room with a 33-22 lead at halftime.
Highlights
Garden City cut the Hays lead down to eight at 37-29 before Hays responded with a 9-2 run to push their lead up to 15 at the end of the third quarter 46-31. Each team scored four points in the fourth quarter with Hays High playing keep away for much of the eight minutes to walk away with a 50-35 victory. It was a similar score the first time the two teams met up with Hays winning 52-34.
Coach Kirk Maska
Hays was led by Savannah Schneider who scored 22 and was the only Indian in double figures. Hays improves to 5-3 and snaps a two game skid. The Indians are 1-2 in the Western Athletic Conference. Garden City falls to 3-7 and 0-3. The Buffaloes were led by the 12 points of Kyra Bellows.
Hays will be at home on Tuesday to play Dodge City. The games will feature only the girls teams as the Hays boys head to the Orange and Black Classic in Colby later in the week.
Boys
Hays 58 – Garden City 49
Hays raced out to a 11-2 lead over the first five minutes of the game before going cold and not scoring for the remainder of the first quarter. Garden City scored the final five points to tighten the game to 11-7 after one quarter. Garden City turned those final five points into a 13-2 run that gave the Buffaloes their first lead of the game at 15-13. The lead was short lived as Cole Murphy buried a three pointer five second later. Hays would trail again at 17-16 but end the first half on a 14-5 run building a 30-22 half time lead.
Highlights
Hays started the third quarter on a 11-0 run to grab control of the ball game. Garden City was held scoreless for the first 5:34 of the third quarter and didn’t hit a field goal until their was 3:55 left in the third. Hays took advantage to build their lead up to a game high 20 at 45-25. Like in the first half, Garden City wasn’t going away with out a fight. The Buffaloes went on a 13-3 run to get back into the game with less than four minutes remaining. Garden City twice cut the lead down to six, missing a three pointer on the second opportunity. Hays hit just enough free throws to keep Garden City at arms length, winning 58-49.
Coach Rick Keltner
Tyrese Hill was the only Indian in double figures scoring 18 points and pulling down 11 rebounds, both career highs. Overall the nine different Indians scored. Hays improves to 7-1 on the season and 2-1 in conference play. Garden City loses for the first time in 2017 and falls to 3-7 and 2-1 in conference play.
The Hays High boys are off until Thursday when they travel to Colby for the Orange and Black Classic to play Falcon, Colorado at 3:00 in Colby High School.