MAIZE, Kan. - Second year head coach Kalen Hilst said he feared a slow start for his Salthawk girls and that fear came true on this night versus the Maize Eagles. But Junior Kohlbie Craft was able to provide enough of a spark to give the Lady Salthawks a 43 to 34 win as the Salthawks earned the sweep on the season over the Eagles.
In the boys contest, the Salthawks trailed by only three, 41-38 going into the final quarter, but Maize came up with big plays to pull away for a 58- 48 win in the end.
Girls recap:
Kohlbie Craft to the rescue was the theme of the night it seemed, as the junior post player came up big by having her most productive night as a Salthawk by scoring 17 points to lead Hutchinson to a 43 to 34 victory over Maize.
Craft scored on a three point play just as the time ran out in the second quarter to score and be fouled. She converted the free throw and that gave Hutchinson a 19 to 15 lead at the half. Hutchinson trailed for much of the first half as the Eagles played just about the entire game in a triangle and two defense shutting down the Salthawk duo of Grace Posh and Kaia Smith most of the night. Posh ended with five points while Smith only earned two points and that was scored in the first half of play.
The Salthawks was unable to extend the half time lead as both teams scored 13 points each in the third. Craft took over in the low post to score 7 of her 17 points in the final quarter only missing one free throw on the night. Tenley Keeton came off the bench to drop nine on the Eagles while Charlotte Kerbs, Malaysia Ingram and Lexee Shipp each scored eight points to lead the Eagles.
Coach Hilst agreed that the triangle and two defense caused some problems and that the Salthawks were going to have to figure out how to break it as now other teams will probably use it against Hutch, going down the stretch. Maize made it work against the Salthawks at least on this night of basketball.
Boys recap:
Brayden Myovelia for Maize came alive in the fourth quarter to score eight of his 13 points to help lead the Eagles to a 58-48 victory and a season sweep of Hutchinson.
Trailing by only three points going into the fourth quarter, Hutch felt that the game was there for the taking, but a six point possession by the Eagles late off a Levi Kepler foul and a technical foul called on Taishaun Govain on the same play cost the Salthawks dearly as Myovelia hit six free throws in a row allowing the Eagles to build a double digit lead at a critical time in the game.
"We just lost focus and you can't have that happen in a game" coach Bryan Miller commented after the contest on his post game radio show.
Maize senior guard Alan Hanna added 15 points to lead the Eagles in scoring.
Taishaun Govain led three Salthawks with double digit scoring with 12 points scored. Kepler added 11 before fouling out late an Lamar Govain had 10 points. Terrell King played the entire game but was held to eight points total as the senior leader only was able to score one basket in the second half.
Hutchinson will travel to Andover on Thursday and then wrap up the regular season with a make-up game in Salina on Friday versus Salina South. The girls game will be a rematch of last years sub-state final that Andover used to send them to state.