The Manhattan Indians girls basketball team (14-8) ended their season in the second round of Sub-State with a 46-31 loss to the Washburn Rural Blues (16-6), who defeated the Indians for the third time this season Saturday in Topeka.
“Shots just didn’t fall,” freshman Evie Banks said.
The Blues got off to a quick start, scoring seven unanswered. Sophomore Jelena Depusior scored the Indians first bucket two and a half minutes into the game, making the score 7-2. Washburn Rural followed that up with another 7-0 run. The Indians got a boost from scoring field goals on back-to-back possessions with a triple from junior Delaney Larson and a layup from Banks cutting the deficit to nine. After giving up a last minute goal in the first half, the Indians trailed the game 12-23 at the intermission.
“We were down by a lot,” senior Kinsley Kaus said. “But I think going into that second half, we had a better mindset.”
The Indians added seven points to the board in just over two minutes to start the third period, five of which were scored by senior Isabelle Peabody. However, the Blues continued to respond on offense, outpacing the Indians by between 8 and 13 points for much of the quarter. MHS scored only seven points in the fourth quarter as Rural secured the victory, punching their ticket to State.
Banks finished the day with a team-leading seven points.
The Blues were led by K-State basketball commit Maddie Vickery who scored 20 points.
“I think she’s a good player for them, because she can obviously work down in the paint and be able to shoot it,” senior Kennedy Dodds said. “So, she’s just good all around wherever they’re needing her against the opposing team.”
The Indians sent Maize home in the first round of Sub-State by the score of 51-27 March 5 at MHS which marked the Tribe’s final home game of the year and the last time seniors played in front of a home crowd.
“I’ve really enjoyed all the games that I’ve played here,” Peabody said. “But yeah, I’m glad that I got one last game here.”
The Indians will be happy to welcome back a core of their top players next season.
“I think we do have a strong group of girls coming back, and then we have some underclassmen who are going to grow and improve more to get ready for next season,” junior Kat Ball said.
