The Manhattan High boys basketball team finished the McPherson Invitational tournament 1-2, bringing their overall record to 4-7.
MHS came into the tournament off a close 45-42 win over Hayden the week before as they looked to continue to ride the momentum. Manhattan was quickly hit off track as they took a round one loss to McPherson 53-78. In the second game Manhattan was set to face Lawrence Free State. Manhattan fell behind early going down 16-26 at the half. In the third quarter the Indians couldn’t get a shot to fall going down 25-43. Looking for a last quarter comeback the Indians continued to struggle losing 40-52.
After a rough start to the tournament senior Landon Knopp had some thoughts on what could’ve gone better for the team.
“I just think that we weren’t really playing together as a team. We weren’t moving the ball on offense, we weren’t trying hard on defense, just kind of everything,” Knopp said “We didn’t really work as hard as we usually do,”
Going into the final game the Indians looked to get a win. After the first two losses the team knew they had to play more like a team to get the job done. The game was a back-and-forth game against Hutchinson, the Indians took a close 63-61 win over the Salthawks improving to 4-7 on the season.
“I think that’s the most we’ve played together this entire year,” Spiegel said. “We didn’t care at all about our personal stats, and we just cared about getting a win,” Spiegel said.
Knopp also had praise for his coaches and team after a bounceback win.
“The coaches kind of sat us down before our loss on Friday, and kind of just told us that we need to come together culture wise, and kind of just get back to where MHS used to be,” Knopp said. “and really just work together as a team, on the defensive end, and then also on the offensive end, just moving the ball like I said, we were just able to hit shots,”
The team looks to keep on winning and carry on the team play against Blue Valley at 7 p.m. this Thursday in the North Gym.
“I think we got to ride the momentum from our win against Hutch and just continue to play it together as a team,” Spiegel said.
