Dustin Armbruster

The Hays High girls played in their first sub-state title game since 2012. Saturday night’s game was played in Buhler with the Indians facing one of the top teams in 4A-D1, McPherson. The Bullpups entered the game ranked 3rd in the classification and had only lost three games on the year.

Mcpherson burst out of the gate with a 16-2 run to put little doubt as to the outcome of the game. Hays would get no closer that six rest of the night, when they scored their first basket at 8-2. Hays trailed by 20 entering the second quarter at 26-6. McPherson out scored Hays by two in the second quarter 13-11 and lead the Indians 39-17 at half time.

Highlights

After trailing 26-6 after the first quarter, McPherson outscored Hays 41-31 the remainder of the game. Hays trailed 59-30 entering the fourth quarter and falls 67-37.

Taylor Robertson scored 28 points to lead all players who move to 19-3 and head to the state tournament in Salina next week. Hays ends their season at 12-10.

Coach Kirk Maska

Dustin Armbruster

Hays and Ulysses met in semi-final round of the girls sub-state tournament in Buhler on Friday night. For both teams it was a season of improvement. Both entered at 11-9 after single digit wins the prior season. Hays won seven last year and Ulysses won just three.

Ulysses scored the first four points of the game to take their only first and only lead of the game at 4-0. Hays responded in an eight minute 18-2 run that sandwiched a 8-0 run and 10-0 run around a two point field goal from Ulysses. That stretch pushed Hays High to a double digit lead at 18-6. The Indians would push that lead up to fifteen two different times, the last at 25-10. Ulysses scored the final five points of the second quarter including a three pointer at the buzzer from over 25 feet away to trim the Indian lead down to 25-15.

Highlights

Hays pushed the lead back to 13 at 30-17 when Ulysses started 7-0 run that would cut the Indian lead down to six with just under three minutes remaining in the third quarter. Maddie Keller and Tasaiah Nunner combined to outscore Ulysses 7-3 on the remainder of quarter to rebuild the Hays lead to 10. Ulysses again trimmed the lead down to single figures getting the difference down to seven 37-30. The lead never dwindled below that. Hays pushed the lead as high as 16 and won 51-38.

Coach Kirk Maska

Savannah Schneider scored a game high 16 while Maddie Keller scored 11. Hays improves to 12-9 on the year and moves to the sub-state championship to face the winner of McPherson and Buhler. It will be the first sub-state title game for the Indians since 2012. Ulysses ends their season at 11-10. Hays held Ulysses to just 26% shooting while hitting 43% themselves.

Dustin Armbruster

For a third straight season, Hays and Buhler matched up in the first round of sub-state play. Hays won the previous two meetings first in Hays then in Ulysses. Thursdays game took place on Buhler’s home floor. As in the previous two years both teams entered with double digit wins.

Hays doubled up Buhler in the first quarter. However that amounted to just a 4-2 lead after the first eight minutes. There weren’t many more points scored in the second quarter. Buhler outscored Hays 10-2 to build their biggest first half lead at 12-8. Hays scored the final five points of the second quarter. The final three points came as time expired when Xander Swayne scored a put-back basket and was fouled as the horn sounded. Swayne knocked down the free throw to give the Indians a 13-12 halftime lead. That Swayne field goal was the only one of the quarter for Hays, but they hit all seven of their free throws.

Highlights

Buhler hit a three pointer to open up the second half to take a brief lead, when Hays went on a 8-0 run to build their biggest lead of the game at 21-15. From the end of second quarter and midway through the third quarter, the Indians outscored 13-3 to build that six point lead. Buhler answered back with a 11-2 run that ended third quarter lasted midway through the fourth quarter. The Crusaders built their lead up to six at 33-27 with two minutes remaining. Hays outscored Buhler 7-1 in the final ninety seconds on two baskets from Tyrese Hill and a conventional three point play by Claiborne Kyles. Buhler missed an alley-oop attempt at the buzzer, leaving the score at 34 a piece.

Hays and Buhler swapped the lead back and forth in the early stages of overtime, with Hays taking the lead at 38-36 with 2:25 remaining. Hays would not score rest of the way. Buhler knocked down five of six free throws, mixed in with a three point basket for the final difference of 44-38.

Coach Rick Keltner

Tyrese Hill led Hays with 12, Claiborne Kyles added 10. Hays finishes the season at 13-8. Buhler improves to 15-6 and plays McPherson for the sub-state title on Saturday.

Hays High’s Shane Berens collected five rebounds in the game, which ties him for 10th all time with 401 boards. He ties 1951 graduate Gene McCurdy.

Dustin Armbruster

The Hays High Indians already knew what sub-state they were going to be a part of. In fact, the teams already knew who they would be playing before the brackets were announced on Saturday.

The boys side of the tournament will start first on Thursday. Hays (12-7) will be the three seed in the bracket and play host school and seconded seeded Buhler (13-6) in the first round at 7:30. McPherson (16-4) is the top seed of the four schools and will play Ulysses (10-10) at 6:00.

This is the third consecutive year that these four schools have been in the same sub-state. All three years have featured the same first round match-ups with the Hays beating Buhler in each of the last two seasons.

The Hays High girls will take the floor on Friday at 6:00 to play Ulysses. Hays and Ulysses each ended the year at 11-9. Ulysses will be the number two seeds and be the home team. Hays will play as the three seed. McPherson (17-3) is the top seed and will play Buhler (3-17), who is the four seed.

Winners in each of the first two days of the tournament will move to the championship round on Saturday. The girls championship will be played at 6:00 with the boys to follow.

Games can be heard on 96.9 KFIX and watched at hayspost.com.

By Dustin Armbruster

Hays finished out the regular season playing Great Bend on Friday night. The game marked just the fourth home game for the Indians since the calendar turned to 2017. The evening also featured all the seniors as they wore a jersey on the home floor for a final time.

It was a busy night at Hays High School. Along with honoring all the seniors, Shane Berens was presented his Shrine Bowl nomination and golf coach Mark Watts was recognized as the 2016 Midwest Sectional Boys Golf Coach of the year by the National Federation of State High School Association after his team won the 2016 4A State Boys Golf Championship.

Girls
Hays 45 – Great Bend 51

Hays built a five point lead at 9-4 with a 9-2 run over the first four minutes of the game. Great Bend answered with a 7-2 to tie the game at 11 with less than two minutes remaining in the quarter. Hays ended the first quarter and began the second quarter on a 8-0 run to build their lead to a first half high at 19-11. Great Bend though had answer once again as they later outscore Hays 8-1 to tie the game at 27. Maddie Keller knocked down one of two free throws with ten second left in the half to give Hays a 28-27 lead at halftime.

Highlights

Great Bend took just their second lead of the game ninety seconds into the second half and used a 12-5 run to build up their lead up to 39-33. Hays closed the third quarter and began the fourth quarter on an 8-0 run that included two Brooke Denning three pointers and a Savannah Schneider steal and layup that put Hays up 41-39. The lead for Hays came with 6:00 remaining in the game. The Indian’s offense went cold, scoring just one free throw and missing twelve shots over the next 5:58 before Denning nailed her fourth three of the game. By that time Great had outscored Hays 12-1 to build a nine point lead. Great Bend ran out the final seconds of the game for the 51-45 win.

Coach Kirk Maska

Carly Dreiling scored a career high 27 points for Great Bend which included making 12 of 13 free throws. Great Bend as a team made 23 of 31 free throws. Brooke Denning hit four three pointers and a traditional three point play to lead Hays with a career high 15.

Both teams end the regular season at 11-9. Great Bend finishes conference play in second at 6-2. Hays ends the year in third at 4-4. Liberal took the girls title at 7-1.

The Hays girls will play in the Buhler sub-state next Friday as they will play Ulysses.

Boys
Hays 61 – Great Bend 66

Hays missed all eleven of their three pointers in the first half as they trailed 26-15 at half time against Great Bend. The two teams swapped the lead six times in the first quarter with Hays never leading by more than a single point. Great Bend took the final lead change of the first half scoring six straight points, going up 13-8 with thirty seconds left in the quarter. Hays got three of those points back on a Xander Swayne three point play in the final seconds of the quarter to pull Hays back with in two at 13-11.

Hays scored only four points in the second quarter. Those four points tied the game at 15 with six minutes left before half time. Hays missed their next eleven shots and only free throw attempt over as Great Bend score 11 straight, taking a 26-15 lead at half.

Highlights

Great Bend continued to control the game through the first five minutes of the third quarter, building a game high 16 point lead at 40-24. The Hays offense started to find a rhythm at that point scoring the final ten points of the third quarter to pull within six at 40-34.

Great Bend built the lead back to ten with three and a half minutes remaining. Hays went on a 8-1 run over the next fifty seconds to tighten the game to one possession at 57-54. Hays would miss two three pointers to tie but eventually get within two points at 61-59 with under thirty seconds remaining. The Panthers made five of their final six free throws to hold on for a 66-61 win.

Coach Rick Keltner

Kody Crosby led all scoring with 31 which included 16 of 20 free throw shooting. As a team Great Bend out shot Hays 39-9 at the free throw stripe. Hays was 7-9. Great Bend was 26 of 39. The Panthers also got a season high 16 from Jacob Murray. Hays put four in double figures with Tradgon McCrae and Claiborne Kyles each scoring 11. Collyn Kreutzer and Tyrese Hill added ten a piece.

Hays falls to 13-7 for the season and finishes in a tie with Garden City for second in the WAC at 5-3. Great Bend improves to 6-14 and 2-6. Hays will be in Buhler for sub-state where they will face the hometown Crusaders.