ABILENE, Kan.—
An age old battle broke out on the basketball court at Abilene High School Tuesday evening and this time it would up being a split battle.For ages the Cowboys have battled the Indians and on Tuesday in Abilene, the Indians, or Lady Indians, won the girls’ basketball game 51-30 while the Cowboys turned back the Indians in the boys’ game but a 62-44 score.
"It is a good feeling right now for our kids because they gave a good effort tonight," Abilene Cowboy coach Terry Taylor said. "They played hard and played together as a team. I am very proud of them."
The victory over Hays High School was Taylor’s first as Abilene’s head coach and snapped the sour feeling the Cowboys had after falling to Wamego in their last outing this past Friday night.
The girls’ game opened the evening and in it the Lady Indians of Hays High basically led throughout.
The Lady Indians scored the game’s first points, but Abilene countered with a 6-2 run to grab a brief early lead. But Hays answered that quick 6-2 run by closing the first quarter with a 6-2 run of its own and took a 9-6 lead into the second quarter and did not trail again in the contest.
The Lady Indians pushed the lead to 23-14 by intermission, led 34-20 after three quarters and outscored Abilene 17-10 in the final period to seal the 21-point victory.
"I thought we had a great effort tonight," Hays girls’ coach Kirk Maska said. "The only thing I was disappointed about was I felt like they got quite a few offensive rebounds. We definitely had the height advantage, other than that, I was really pleased with the way we played. We knew Abilene was going to be well coached and they were going to jump in and out of things and I felt like we adjusted pretty well."
Taylor Herman led the Lady Indians with 38 points while Katelyn Schmacher added 17 for Hays in the victory.
Abilene was led by Belle Barberi’s 12 points.
The boys’ game was much the same way as the Indians scored the game’s first points after a charity toss to lead 1-0 and scored 6 of the game’s first 10 points to be in front 6-4 but this time it was the Cowboys that answered that early start with a 11-0 run of its own to go in front 15-8 and the Cowboys did not look back as they led the remainder of the contest.
Abilene led 17-10 after the first quarter. Hays trimmed the Cowboy lead to 28-23 by intermission and then fought to within one, 41-40, as the game went into the final quarter.
But in that final period the Cowboys hit the first two buckets and outscored the Indians 21-4 to seal up the victory.
"We pointed at this game, ever since Friday night," Taylor said. "As soon as we walked off the court at Wamego we talked about this game. We knew it was going to be our toughest opponent all season would be Hays. They have great three pointers … they got great depth, they just keep running players at you and running players at you. I thought this was a great challenge for us before sub-state."
The Cowboys were led by Andy Wilson’s 19 points while Jacob Harms added 16 for Abilene. Hays was paced by Nicholas Petz’s 12 points, all of which came from beyond the arc as he knocked four 3-point shots in the game.
