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Hays High's tourney title bid comes up short
Published on -1/28/2012, 11:43 PM
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McPHERSON — For third-year coach Kirk Maska and the Hays High School girls' basketball team, it wasn't a question of if McPherson standout junior and Division I prospect Katelyn Loecker was going to be a factor.
It wasn't even a question of when. It was more about how they would respond when it did, because the Indians counted on it happening.
What HHS didn't count on was the early hot shooting from junior Hailey Ruder that kept McPherson in the game long enough for Loecker to be a factor. When Loecker did put her stamp on the game, HHS didn't respond well.
“We knew they were going to make a run, and we knew we weren't going to keep Katelyn Loecker down,” said Maska, whose team fell 52-42 in its first trip to the Mid-America Classic title game in five tries. “She had a big third quarter for them.”
McPherson mounted a 20-6 run in the third quarter after trailing by one at half, and held on for its 10th tourney title in 17 seasons. McPherson has played in all but one of the tournament's championship games.
Hays High (8-4) became the first team in the tourney's storied history to make the title game as the No. 6 seed, but fell just short of knocking off its third straight undefeated team, and third straight ranked opponent in the field. The Indians were the lowest seeded team in history to make the final.
“You could tell (Hays High) just had so much confidence built from their two previous wins in our tournament,” McPherson coach Chris Strathman said. “And, they've been playing really well lately.”
The momentum of back-to-back upsets sparked an early run for the Indians. Loecker, who averaged 15.7 points and 8.6 rebounds for the unbeaten Bullpups (13-0) entering the tourney, had just six first-half points, and was held in check by the defensive mixture of juniors Taylor Herman, Katelyn Schumacher, and Emily Braun.
But, after Hays High built up a 13-6 lead, led by senior Paige Lunsford in the first quarter, Ruder and the Bullpups stormed back. Ruder, who had hit just five 3-pointers all season, knocked down four in the second quarter, and brought McPherson back to a one-point deficit by intermission.
“Hailey saved our butts in the first half with four 3s,” Strathman said. “That was amazing. She did a great job of shooting the basketball when she was open.”
Then, after a brief visit to the locker room in the second quarter with an ankle tweak, the 6-foot Loecker was in full force in McPherson's 20-6 third quarter.
“I was kind of excited at halftime, and actually told them before the game, we were going to be ahead at halftime,” Maska said. “A shot or two here and there, we would have been right back in the thick of things.
“We didn't answer with as much as I hoped we would at the other end,” Maska added.
Hays High fell down by as much as 12, getting just four points at the foul line and one field goal in the third, while Loecker scored seven of her 15 points in the first three minutes of the second half.
Lunsford, who scored a game-high 21 points, tried to engineer a comeback for Hays High. She hit both ends of a one-and-one with 1:14 to go to narrow the lead to seven points, but the Indians never got closer.
“We took their best shot,” Strathman said. “They really came out and played. They hit open shots early.
“We weren't as locked in defensively as well as we should have been, but they ran their stuff well and knocked down shots,” he added.
Lunsford was a big reason for that. The 21 points pushed her 3-game tourney total to 60. She finished the event as the tournament's leading scorer. She also moved into the top-10 in career scoring for the tournament. In four seasons, Lunsford racked up 143 points, placing her on a list of 10 players that includes former Kansas State University sharp-shooter Laurie Koehn, former Fort Hays State University forward Cassie Cordell, and Little River's Kylee McGill, among others. Loecker, also nearing the top 10 could break in, and then some, next season.
Lunsford also set the tournament record for most free throws made in three games. Lunsford made 23 in the tourney, missing just five times. She broke the old record of 20 set in 1997 by Canton-Galva's Natalie Hess. Lunsford was named to the all-tournament team, along with Schumacher, the first Indian players to receive the honor since Hays High began playing at McPherson in 2008.
Schumacher started the tournament with back-to-back double-doubles, then had six points and six rebounds in the title game. The junior has averaged 10.3 rebounds per contest over her last six games.
Hays High was also the recipient of the tournament's sportsmanship award.
The Indians now turn their attention toward the Western Athletic Conference, and more importantly, sub-state standings. The Indians host a key game Tuesday against 5A sub-state foe Salina South. Game time is 6 p.m. at the HHS gym.
