2/12/2012

By ARNE GREEN

Salina Journal

Offense was the last thing on Geoff Andrews' mind when he addressed his Salina Central girls before facing Manhattan, the fifth-ranked team in Class 6A.

Good thing, too, because points were hard to come by on both sides.

But the Mustangs did enough other things well, most notably smothering Manhattan with a suffocating man-to-man defense, to hold off the shorthanded Indians, 34-23, Saturday night at the Central gym.

"We put up some goals before the game, and none of them had anything to do with scoring," said Andrews, whose 5A No. 1-ranked Mustangs improved to 13-3. "We challenged every girl individually to either get rebounds, deflections, steals or assists.

"The girls knew going into the game that Manhattan maybe hadn't seen pressure defense like that, and our half-court man can be pretty good. Tonight, it was."

In addition to limiting Manhattan (14-2) to 37 percent shooting from the field without a 3-pointer, Central forced 16 turnovers and answered a pair of second-half charges by the Indians. Though the Mustangs shot just 38.8 percent themselves, they also held their turnover number to nine and converted when they had to.

"We knew coming in that a couple of their guards liked to drive, and I thought when they did we did a good job hedging and helping out," said Central sophomore forward Shaelyn Martin, who had a solid all-around game with 12 points, eight rebounds and several key assists. "They really had trouble against our man-to-man defense.

"When we came in at halftime, they were really struggling with our defense, and we knew we needed to try to keep it up. We came out a little rough, but we regrouped and got everything back under control."

The Mustangs got off to a good start, outscoring Manhattan, 11-2, in the opening quarter and stretched it to 19-8 at the half. The Indians rallied to within five points early in the third and fourth periods but could get no closer.

"I thought our defense was amazing," said Central forward Hailey Mayfield, who after Parfitt McNair's basket cut Manhattan's deficit to 26-21 with 3:52 left, scored three straight baskets and took a charge at the other end as the Mustangs built the lead back to 11. "We knew what we had to do and we did it."

Andrews said he contemplated spreading the court down the stretch, but instead let his Mustangs keep attacking. After McNair's basket, it immediately paid off when Martin found Mayfield underneath from the high post at the 3:12 mark, then again in transition with 2:48 to go, making it 30-21.

"We were going to go with our motion offense, but we didn't want to play not to lose," Andrews said. "Then Hailey came up big with a couple of baskets, and our whole bench exploded when she took that charge."

Martin was the only double-figure scorer for Central, though Gabrielle Briggs added eight points, including a pair of key baskets when Manhattan made its first run early in the second half. Briggs also had five rebounds.

Manhattan, playing without leading scorer and rebounder Mary Jo Massanet, got 10 points from Onyeka Ehie and seven from Darby Price, who also led the Indians to a 25-23 rebounding edge with five.

Salina Central boys 54, Manhattan 52

Central's boys opened an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter but hung on by a thread for the victory.

Kyle McQuaige's 3-pointer with 2:56 left, put the Mustangs up 47-39, the biggest margin by either team. But Manhattan took advantage of some shaky Central free-throw shooting down the stretch as Deante Burton and Brandon Payne led a late charge down the stretch.

But after Burton's basket cut the lead to 51-47 with 1:15 to go, Jackson Rolfs hit a pair of free throws at the 34-second mark that pushed it back to six. Central made just 1 of 4 foul shots the rest of the way, while Burton scored inside and Payne drilled a late 3-pointer to cut it to two.

"We wanted to play to win, rather than not to lose," Central coach Doug Finch said after the Mustangs chose not to sit on the late lead. "I thought we did some nice things, and if that's what it takes to build some confidence going into the last two weeks, that's what we'll do."

Central got 23 points from McQuaige, 13 from Treyton Hines and 12 from Mark Vaughn, who also led the Mustangs to a 26-25 rebounding advantage with 11.

"We knew they were athletic and had a lot of good rebounders," Vaughn said. "I just got as many rebounds as possible for us and got us as many extra possessions as I could."

Central played most of the game without senior post Jarek Unruh, who injured his foot on the first possession and did not return. But Vaughn, Hines and Justin Bengtson picked up the slack.

"That was definitely the most physical game of the year," said Hines, who was 3 of 3 from the field with a 3-pointer and hit 6 of 7 free throws. "It was definitely a grind-it-out game."

The Mustangs, who led 22-21 at halftime and 37-34 after three quarters, improved to 10-6 with the victory while Manhattan fell to 8-8. The Indians got 17 points of the bench from Payne and 15 from Burton, who also grabbed nine rebounds.

---

Discuss This Story:

---