Manhattan High girls\u2019 basketball ran into a hot-shooting Wichita East squad in the sub-state championship Friday night, falling 72-58 as the Indians\u2019 season came to a close.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played hard until the very end to give ourselves a chance \u2014 it just felt like it wasn\u2019t meant to be,\u201d head coach Scott Mall said. \u201cThey were hitting shots, and we just weren\u2019t able to get the plays we needed down the stretch, even though we did everything we could.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Indians finished the season with a share of the Centennial League title while posting a 19-6 record.<\/p>\n
Manhattan graduates four seniors in Delaney Larson, Kat Ball, Jorryn Hall and Tess Henry. In their final starts as Indians, Larson carded five points while battling through foul trouble, while Ball posted 13 to lead Manhattan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been so blessed that we\u2019ve had just great seniors every year that I\u2019ve been here,\u201d Mall said. \u201cAnd this bunch is definitely one for the ages. They did a super, super job to give us the success we had and to put us in a position where we were that close to getting to the state tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wichita East made 10 3-pointers in the contest, led by sophomore Ty\u2019Leeah Lucas, who scored 16 points with four triples. Freshman Jada Davis added 15 points, including 11 in the first half.<\/p>\n
It was a physical, defense-first start as Wichita East kept Manhattan from converting a field goal until the four-minute mark of the first quarter. Still, relying on its defensive pressure and ability to get to the charity stripe, Manhattan kept the game even at 13-13 after one quarter.<\/p>\n
The Blue Aces took a lead in the second quarter that reached as many as eight points. Just before the break, however, Manhattan grabbed momentum back with a 4-0 run to enter halftime trailing 32-28.<\/p>\n
Turnovers were apparent for Manhattan in the opening half, reaching double digits, but the Indians\u2019 forwards provided a boost inside. Juniors Ansley Becket and Bailey Busch combined for 13 points in the half, converting through contact at the rim on multiple occasions.<\/p>\n
Manhattan\u2019s late run carried into the second half as Evie Banks opened with a 3-pointer, while Ball and Busch converted at the free-throw line to make it a 12-0 run in total.<\/p>\n
The rest of the third quarter featured more haymakers from the 6A West heavyweights. After Manhattan\u2019s 12-0 run, the Blue Aces answered with their own to stretch the lead back to seven before an 8-0 Manhattan run erased the deficit again.<\/p>\n
Manhattan senior point guard Delaney Larson picked up her fourth foul late in the frame. Wichita East ultimately carried a 49-46 lead into the final quarter.<\/p>\n
The Blue Aces\u2019 hot shooting continued in the fourth quarter, building a 12-point lead with three minutes to play as shots kept falling from distance. Wichita East scored 23 points in the period, clinching the road win and a trip to the Class 6A state tournament.<\/p>\n
Despite graduating a special senior group, Manhattan will return several key contributors from this year\u2019s league champion squad.<\/p>\n
WICHITA EAST 72,<\/p>\n
MANHATTAN 58<\/p>\n
W. East (20-5) \u2014 13; 19; 17; 23 \u2014 72<\/p>\n
MHS (19-6) \u2014 13; 15; 18; 12 \u2014 58<\/p>\n
INDIVIDUAL SCORING<\/p>\n
MHS \u2014 Larson 5, Depusoir 8, Busch 11, Ball 13, Becket 6, Banks 12, Ingram 3<\/p>\n
Wichita East \u2014 Lucas 16, Galbert 8, J. Davis 15, Selmon 5, Landrun 8, Kates 10, Respress 9<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manhattan High girls\u2019 basketball ran into a hot-shooting Wichita East squad in the sub-state championship Friday night, falling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[8918,4567,20431,75,84,83,9,24,63,319,4027],"class_list":["post-155945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-american-football","tag-basketball","tag-free-throw","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-sports","tag-team-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}