HAYS - Hays High jumped back into Western Athletic Conference play to play Liberal for a second time on the season.
Girls: #9-6A Liberal 55, Hays 38
Liberal scored the first six points of the game and led wire-to-wire on the way to a 55-38 win over Hays.
The Lady Red built a 14-4 lead one minute in to the second quarter before Hays started to show signs of a comeback. The Indians scored seven straight points and eventually pulled with in one point on two occasions. Both of those times the Indians had the ball twice but was unable to score.
Liberal scored four points in the final nine seconds of the second quarter to take a 22-17 lead into the lockerroom.
Highlights
Liberal again built a double digit lead at 31-19 before a pair of Indian threes forced a timeout at 31-25. Hays trailed 35-29 going the fourth quarter but never threatened the Lady Red.
Hays was outscored 20-9 and made just one of fifteen shots, losing 55-38.
Coach Len Melvin
Hays falls to 9-7 and is now 2-3 in WAC play. They were led by Katie Linenberger and Molly Martin who each scored 11. Liberal is 14-2 and 4-1. The Lady Red got 18 from Hailey Contreras and 11 out of Rylie Hallman
Boys: Hays 76, Liberal 36
Hays scored a season high points as they never trailed to Liberal in a 76-36 victory.
Hays scored ten seconds in the game and Liberal tied the game less than thirty seconds later. That would be the only tie of the night as Hays never led by less than three rest of the night.
The Indians took a 23-12 lead early in the second quarter before Liberal went on a 9-2 run to cut their deficit down to 25-21. Hays took control of the remaining four minutes by ending the half on a 15-4 run for a 40-25 lead.
Highlights
Any thoughts of the Indians letting down in the second half were quickly put to rest when Hays scored eight points on three steals in the first 70 seconds of the third quarter.
Hays built their lead to 30 in the third quarter and led 64-31 heading to the fourth. A continuous clock fourth was the only thing that slowed down Hays but the Indians still scored 12 points for a 76-36 win.
Coach Sean Dreiling
Hays put five in double figures, led by the 16 of Jack Weimer. Edwin Muller, Kyreese Groen and Chason VanDerWege each scored 11. Kyzer Fox added 10. The Indians are 9-7 and 3-2 in WAC play. Liberal has lost 13 in a row and sits at 2-14 and 0-5 in WAC.
Hays travels to Abilene on Tuesday.