COLBY - The Hays High girls and boys both finished in third place at the Colby Orange & Black Classic on Saturday.
Girls
Hays 56 - Beloit 23
Hays opened the game on an 11-1 run and never looked back beating Beloit 56-23.
The Trojans made one push in the first quarter to close the gap down to 11-7, but the Indians scored the next seven to lead 18-7 after one quarter.
Hays outscored Beloit 14-3 in the second for a 32-11 lead by halftime.
Highlights
The Indians kept the edge in the second half 24-13 for the 56-23 victory.
Katie Linenberger and Carly Lang each scored 13 points. 14 girls played with 10 scoring.
Coach Len Melvin
Hays improves to 8-4.
The girls individual tournament awards will be announced on Monday after the girls championship game. That game was postponed when Goodland was unable to make the trip due to the weather and road conditions.
Boys
Hays 55 - #7-3A Colby 48
Hays only trailed once on their way to a 55-48 win over state ranked Colby.
The Indians fell behind 3-2 before the game was tied at three and five. Hays scored the games next six points and never led by less than two rest of the day.
Hays pushed their advantage to ten in the second quarter, but Colby responded with a 9-4 spurt to close the gap down to 25-20 at halftime.
Highlights
The Indians held two eight points lead in the third quarter before the Eagles brought it back to a three point game both times.
Hays took a 38-35 lead into the fourth quarter and pushed the edge to 49-39 with 2:33 left. Colby's last push brought the score to 50-48 with :40 left. The Indians made three of the last free throws and a game ending layup for the 55-48 victory.
Coach Dustin Pfeifer
Chason VanDerWege and Jack Weimer each scored 19. Dawson Ruder added a career high 11.
Hays improves to 6-6. Colby is 11-2.
Landen Clark and Devin Schmidtberger were honored on the All-Academic Team. Chason VanDerWege and Jack Weimer were named to the All-Tournament Team. Dawson Ruder earned the "Off The Bench" award for the tournament's top sixth man. It is the fourth time in five years Hays has won the award. Trey Adams (2019), Jace Linenberger (2020) and Jordan Dale (2021) also won the award. Ruder is the 11th Indian in the team's 20th appearance tournament appearance to earn the 6th man award.