By KEVIN THOMPSON

Special to The Hays Daily News

GARDEN CITY -- It was a tough weekend last week for the Garden City girls' basketball team, dropping three games in the Newton tournament. What Buffs coach David Upton was looking for was a good win in front of a home crowd. If it was against a Western Athletic Conference opponent, even better.

That's exactly what he got as his girls opened up what was a relatively close game by taking care of business against Western Athletic Conference opponent Hays High, 59-40.

This was a rematch of a game played in December at the Hays City Shoot-Out when Garden City torched the Indians 76-40.

The lower output Friday night, Upton said, was due to a better Hays High team this time around, one that played with different defensive sets, and a bit of effort issues from his own team.

"I knew coming into this game that Hays would be improved," Upton said. "They hung around with us in that first half. But the girls picked up their defensive intensity in the second half and we just ran away with it."

Hays High (4-11 overall, 1-2 WAC) held a 9-8 lead with under two minutes to play in the first quarter, thanks in part to a perimeter defense that forced Garden City outside. Then Syd Sassaman hit her only basket of the night -- a 3-pointer from the top of the key -- and Kristen Heiman hit a pair of free throws for a 13-9 lead.

Traci Martinez's 3 got the Buffaloes charged, and she and Carly Schmale led the team to a 24-18 halftime lead.

That tandem stepped it up in the third period, scoring 12 of the team's 15 points. Junior center Lindsey Schmeidler scored 11 points for HHS in the first half. In the second half, she didn't score and fouled out.

Schmale had a huge night for Garden City, scoring 22 points and grabbing six boards. Martinez added 12 points and nine rebounds.

Even in the loss, Hays High's' first half was a plus for Indian coach Kirk Maska. And holding Garden City to under 59 after their first meeting was a bonus.

"We tried to jump in and out of the defenses and mix things up a bit," he said. "The defensive end isn't what's causing us problems. We can't get anybody to put the ball in the hole on the other end."

The Indians only hit a quarter of their shots and were 0-for-19 from beyond the arc. Paige Lunsford led HHS with 14 points.

"We missed a lot of opportunities. Until we fix problems on the offensive end, we're going to struggle," Maska said.