MANHATTAN- The Hoxie Indians advanced to the state tournament with a convincing 81-66 win over the Plainville Cardinals last week in the Ellis 2A Sub-State Championship. The Indians 21-2 record was good enough for the 3 seed at the state tournament in Manhattan. They'd be facing off against the 6 seed Garden Plains Owls. The Owls won the Sedan Sub-State, holding a record of 18-5 on the year.
Hoxie started the game strong, scoring the first 7 points of the contest. However, the Owls steadily crawled back into the game, snatching a 14-13.
The Owls owned the first portion of the second quarter, using a 14-4 run to take a 28-17 lead. Hoxie scored the last 5 points of the half to cut the lead to 28-22 heading into the break.
The Indians slowly chipped away at the Owl lead in the the third. Freshamn Brady Jones knocked down a 3 at the end of the quarter to give Hoxie their first second half lead 39-38. That would be the score heading to the fourth.
The Indians played a hard fourth, pushing the lead to 47-40 with under four minutes to go. However, the Owls stormed all the way back, finishing the game on 10-0 run. That put score 50-47 in favor of the Owls. Hoxie's late attempts to take back the lead would fall short, resulting in a 50-47 Garden Plain win.
Junior Harlan Obioha finished the game with 21 points, 15 rebounds, 5 blocks, and 4 assists. Senior Parker Jones chipped in 10 points and 8 rebounds.
The Indians finished the season 21-3. Jones is the only senior they are losing that played significant minutes.
Garden Plain improved to 19-5 on the year. They would have played Seabury Academy in the semi-finals, had the tournament not been canceled due to the Corona Virus outbreak. Accordingly, the 2019-20 season is now over for all teams.
Congratulations to all of our state teams on a season well played. We are already ripe with anticipation for next season!