“We came out and did exactly what we needed to do,” Renk said. “We talked about in the locker room that we wanted to jump on them early and we were able to do that. And it wasn’t just on the offensive end, our defense was good too.”
Salina South rode the momentum of the opening quarter to a 51-39 victory over Campus, spoiling the Colts’ homecoming.
The Cougars scored the first 11 points of the game, and they didn’t allow the Colts to get on the board until midway through the first quarter when Blake Myers hit a shot. Salina South went on to score 12 of the game’s next 14 points capped by an Ethan Mitchell three-point play.
Mitchell had 12 points in the opening quarter, including two three-point plays, but what pleased Renk the most was Mitchell’s rebounding.
“He’s had a couple of good games where he’s put some point production in on the offensive end, but both him and Justin Davis on the boards were huge for us tonight,” Renk said. “That’s critical for our bigs to be able to have that type of production.”
Campus coach Josh Axline gave Salina South (6-9, 3-4 AVCTL Division I) credit for being aggressive and ready to go at tip-off. As for his team, Axline had a different outlook.
“I honestly think we forgot we had a game tonight. That’s not a group that I’m used to seeing,” he said. “They punched us in the mouth and we never reacted. After eight minutes, it was over.”
The Cougars extended their lead to 23 during the second quarter and then led 33-11 at halftime. Salina South maintained its comfortable advantage through most of the third quarter before Campus’ Jordan Sparks personally ended the quarter with a 7-0 run to make the score 41-24 heading into the fourth.
The Colts continued to chip away at the deficit thanks to the 3-point shooting of Chris Kelly, who hit three treys in the fourth quarter. Campus got within 42-29 on Kelly’s first 3-pointer at the six minute mark and then 49-37 on his last with 1:30 remaining.
“They did a nice job of coming out and knocking down some 3s there in that second half,” Renk said.
Campus (4-11, 2-5) couldn’t get any closer though as Salina South made baskets at key moments. Conner Ryan followed Kelly’s first 3-pointer with one of his own and then the Cougars scored four straight points after Kelly’s second trey.
“We were able to answer back when we needed to,” Renk said.
Axline was pleased with his team’s effort in the second half and part of the second quarter. He felt the early deficit that the Colts dug themselves into was too much to overcome though.
“I thought for 2½ quarters – the last half of the second and the second half – that’s the team we could have been and it would have been a lot better game,” he said. “But you can’t make up a 23-4 run like that when you struggle offensively like we do.”
Kelly and Sparks led Campus with 11 points each and all of their points came after halftime. Austin Vaden added eight points for the Colts.
Mitchell was tops in scoring for Salina South with 18 points, followed closely by Ryan who had 16. Justin Stonebraker and Davis each contributed six points for the victors.
Salina South girls 47, Campus 29
The Cougars broke open a close game at halftime by outscoring the Colts 26-13 in the second half.
Salina South moved to 8-7 with the win and is 4-3 in Division I of the AVCTL. Campus fell to 3-12, 0-7 in league.
