Manhattan High girls\u2019 basketball opened the playoffs with a successful bird hunt Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
The No. 4-seeded Indians advanced to the sub-state final with a dominant 67-21 win over No. 13 seed Lawrence Free State.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came out and took care of business,\u201d head coach Scott Mall said. \u201cWe played good defense. Right from the start, we knew we had to focus. And then offensively, I thought we did really well, we did a good job of doing different things and making the most of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The regular season saw Manhattan secure a share of the Centennial League title. The start of the new season \u2014 the postseason \u2014 brought a wire-to-wire win with a running clock late.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to get the win, that\u2019s the important thing,\u201d Mall said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s especially nice to get the win without it coming down to the wire or anything. That\u2019s always nice, hopefully that makes us feel good, but also save some energy for Friday, because we\u2019ll need it because Wichita East is very, very talented.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manhattan carded 11 scorers, led by Evie Banks, who scored 16 points. The sophomore also broke the program\u2019s single-season record for 3-pointers, while senior Delaney Larson climbed into the top four in all-time assists and scored 10 points.<\/p>\n