Great Bend girls beat Liberal for first home win

Neither Liberal nor Great Bend were in the mix for conference championship as the basketball seasons continued to wind down Saturday, but with substate looming, both schools had plenty to play for. The Lady Panthers picked up their first home-win of the year with a 52-41 win. The Liberal boys needed triple overtime to beat the Panthers two weeks ago, but downed Great Bend 54-42 on its own court.

Great Bend girls 52, Liberal 41
The Lady Panthers entered the night with just two wins of the year. One of those wins was a 39-19 thrashing at Liberal two weeks ago. Trailing 19-18 at the half, Great Bend turned it on in the third quarter to finish with their highest offensive output all season and pick up their third win.

“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, our chances of winning at home were being reduced,” said Lady Panther coach Jason Tatkenhorst . “We wanted to know what it feels like to win at home. I told the girls I’m sure some of them didn’t feel like they did enough and didn’t quite play the way they wanted, but our ultimate goal is to win the game. Our team won the game and it’s exciting to do that.”

 The Lady Panthers (3-16) used three-pointers from Regan Unruh and Kelsey Crosby to take a 24-19 lead early in the third quarter. Kaylie Doll and Emily Cruse also added baskets as Great Bend completed a 12-0 run that began on a Crosby basket at the end of the first half. Seven Lady Panthers combined to hit nine of their first 13 shots in the second half to take a 38-26 lead after three quarters.

“That’s the way we are in practice,” Tatkenhorst said. “If we miss a few, we might miss a few more. If we make a couple, all of a sudden everyone’s eyes light up and that rim seems like its double the size. We have a goal of scoring 46 a game and we got to 52. We have not reached that. We’re proud to reach that.”

Liberal (3-15) struggled to make shots all night, converting just 9-of-30 tries through three quarters. The Redskins were just three-of-eight from the floor in third quarter, missing several more shots in the paint.

“We lost our composure a little bit and turned the basketball over,” said Liberal coach Bill Baird. “I think we missed about 12 to 15 layups at the basket tonight. You’re never going to win doing that. Give credit to Great Bend. They put enough pressure on us to turn it over.”

The Lady Panthers continued to shoot well early in the fourth quarter. Morgan Harwood and Olivia Basye hit shots in the first minute, and Liz Kutina added a basket for Great Bend’s largest lead of the night at 44-26.

Liberal looked to be in control of the game early on, using a three-pointer from Megan Besecker and a three-point play from Jai Chapman to take an 8-0 lead just three minutes into the game. Harwood’s putback put the Panthers on the board and they trailed 11-8 after one quarter.

Crosby kept Great Bend alive in the second quarter, scoring all 10 Lady Panther points. Ramey Petty’s triple for Liberal gave the Skins a 17-12 lead, but Crosby answered with a pair of long twos on the other end. Her final shot with six seconds to play in the half cut the gap to 19-18.

“We were searching in the first half for somebody to make a basket,” said Tatkenhorst. “She really kept us in the game. She’s a good spot-shooter and gaining confidence. The rest of the girls are also gaining confidence in her as well.”

The 5-foot-11 junior Crosby scored all of her 15 points in the final three quarters and led the Panthers with seven rebounds. Kutina scored all of her six points in the final quarter. Harwood finished with six points, and Unruh added five points.

Chapman, a sophomore at Liberal, started and finished the game strong, scoring 13 of her 15 points in the first and fourth quarters. Sophomore Amber Fosmire added eight points, and junior Marison Regalado finished with six points and a team-high five rebounds.

Great Bend and Liberal, who used to dominate the Western Athletic Conference, are both rebuilding this year. The Redskins are also without first-team All-Stater Justice Norah. The senior averaged 25 points a game last year but tore her ACL in the second game of this season.

“We’re playing a couple freshman and sophomores heavy minutes,” Baird said. “In my mind, that’s great experience for the future. You’ve got to go through these growing pains to get somewhere.”

Liberal boys 54, Great Bend 42
Panther senior Jace Bowman hit eight threes and scored 30 points in a triple-overtime loss to Liberal two weeks ago. The Redskins contained Bowman for the most part Saturday night, holding him to just three field goals through three quarters before he was ejected with two technical fouls. Liberal then hit 13-of-19 free throws in the fourth quarter to leave town with a 12-point win.

“He’s a great player,” said Redskin coach Drew Gruver. “We were keying on him. We knew we had to shut him down and I think our guys did a good job defensively of not giving him open looks.”

A pair of Bowman free throws late in the first half gave Great Bend (5-14) its first lead at 19-18. Liberal (7-11) took a 20-19 lead into the half, but a Bowman field goal gave the Panthers a 21-20 edge before Ethan Henderson’s putback gave Great Bend it’s largest lead of the night at 23-20 just 90 seconds into the third quarter. Henderson, who missed much of the first half with foul trouble, quickly picked up a third foul and headed back to the bench.

From there, it was all Liberal to close out the third quarter. Britton Abbott took a steal for a layup late in the quarter, then William Ross did the same thing for a 28-23 lead. Bowman converted a three-point play before Ross again took a steal for a layup at the buzzer.

“That was our game plan to get out and pressure their guards and pressure the perimeter players,” Gruver said. “We did that and were able to get a couple of steals.”

“We only turned it over nine times,” said Panther coach Chris Battin. “Unfortunately, the ones led to layups and that hurts when they get points off turnovers. Turnovers don’t always get you, but unfortunately ours led to layups so they got some easy points.”

After the buzzer, Bowman was whistled for his second technical foul. Both of those technicals were double-fouls, but Bowman suffered the most with an ejection. He left the game with 15 points.

“Anytime you’re missing kids to foul trouble and get a kid ejected from the game, obviously that hurts,” said Battin. “We’ve got to be smarter in some situations and avoid fouls. We’re okay. We just have to regroup and get over this segment.”

Great Bend got as close as 32-28 early in the fourth quarter, but an and-one from Kenlee West, and a three-pointer from Ross quickly put the Redskins back on top 38-28 with 6:50 remaining. The Panthers began fouling with two minutes to play in the game. As Liberal hit just three-of-seven free throw tries early in the quarter, the Panthers used old-fashioned three-point plays from Matt Marshall and Bryce Beck to get as close as 46-40 with 1:31 to play, but Liberal was strong at the stripe down the stretch, hitting nine of its final 12 attempts.

“We missed some free throws early from guys who lately have been knocking them down,” Gruver said. “We were able to hit enough free throws down the stretch to win.”

Redskin DeVondre Livingston took seven of Liberal’s first 11 shots in the game and finished with a game-high 16 points and nine rebounds. Ross added 13 points. Osvaldo Villarreal hit two threes in the first half, then went six-of-eight from the stripe in the fourth quarter to finish with 12 points.

Bowman did most of his damage at the free throw line where he went 9-of-11. Marshall finished with nine points, and Henderson scored six points and grabbed nine boards despite missing time to foul trouble.