The Hays High School boys basketball team had to face a lot of challenges this last weekend, but they were able to pull out a second-place finish in the 42nd annual Hays City Shootout from Dec. 5-7 with wins over Newton and Hugoton before falling to 6A powerhouse, Blue Valley Northwest in the championship game.
Game #1: Hays 48 – Newton 43
In their first game under new head coach Paul Reichenberger, the Newton Railers came out swinging and gave Hays High a scare. But, the Indians prevailed to start their season with a win for the seventh year in a row.
The first quarter went back and forth with three ties, but Hays High only trailed when Newton got the first points of the game, and the Indians led 19-12 after the first eight minutes.
The Railers responded by getting the first five points of the second quarter from Camden Schmidt, who had all of Newton’s points in the second quarter, before Hays High went on a 7-0 run to take a nine-point lead. But, just when the Indians thought they were about to pull away, Newton went on an 8-0 run to end the half, as Hays High held a one-point advantage at halftime, 26-25.
Newton took their first lead since the start of the game to open up the second half, but Hays High pulled back in front with another one-point lead around five minutes into the quarter. Hays High led, 41-34, at the end of the third quarter after going on an 11-0 run that carried into the fourth quarter.
The Indians led, 46-34, at the end of their run, and once again, the Railers started to come back with a 9-0 run to make the score 46-43, entering the final minutes of the game, but Hays High hit two free throws from junior Trey Oakley and junior Dawson Ruder to secure the win.
Despite not being in the starting lineup, Ruder finished as Hays High’s leading scorer and rebounder with 15 points and seven rebounds. The Indians also saw a strong performance from junior Izaac Fox who finished as the other Indian in double figures with 10 points.
Schmidt finished as the leader for the Railers in a starting lineup that featured three seniors and two juniors. Schmidt had 20 of the team’s 43 points, and Maddox Williams had 10 points while leading in multiple other stat categories, such as rebounds and assists.
Newton was able to pick things up in the last days of the Shootout, as they finished with a win over Thomas More Prep, 57-24, but fell to defending Shootout champion Life Prep, 65-49, to get a sixth-place finish.
Game #2: Hays 47 – Hugoton 45
The Hugoton Eagles had the ball with five seconds remaining but could not hit the game-winning three-pointer as time expired. That miss gave Hays High the win to return to the Shootout championship after a three-year hiatus.
Hays High started the game with a 10-4 lead before the Eagles got key shots to fall from Adrian Adigun and Jonas Mouk. The Indians then got a layup and an and-one from junior Trey Oakley to take a 13-9 lead after the first quarter.
The Indians got the first four points of the second quarter before the two teams went back and forth with made shots and led 21-20 at halftime after a short scoring run from the Eagles.
Hugoton’s 11-point scoring run carried over into the third quarter and they took the lead back, and there were four ties and three lead changes for the rest of the quarter.
The Indians and the Eagles were tied at 32 entering the fourth quarter. The lead continued to change hands, and a couple more ties occurred, but Hays High started to pull away with a 45-40 lead. Miguel Hernandez then hit a key three pointer to cut into Hays High’s lead, and the rest of the scoring in the game was free throws as Hays High’s came from senior Jonathan Cano, and Hugoton’s came from Gavin Salazar. Cano missed his second free throw at the end of the game, got the rebound and went out of bounds. So, Hugoton had one last chance to win the game, but they missed a buzzer beater off the side of the rim as time expired, and Hays High moved on to the championship game.
Ruder once again led Hays High in scoring and rebounding with 12 points and nine rebounds. However, he did get a lot of help from his teammates with Oakley and Cano both getting nine points, and senior Cooper (Tiger) Johnson matching what he had in the prior game with eight.
Hugoton’s leading scorers were Miguel Hernandez who had 12 points and Gavin Salazar who finished with 11. The leading rebounder for the Eagles was Grant Niehues with seven of the teams 15 rebounds.
The Eagles won the night before against TMP, 51-21, but ended up finishing in fifth after losing to Sunrise Christian in a game where they kept it close at the start, but in the end, fell by a score of 72-47.
Game #3: Blue Valley Northwest 62 – Hays 42
In their first Shootout appearance, the Blue Valley Northwest Huskies made a run to the championship and did not have any trouble against the Indians as they got a big lead in the first half and went on to win, 62-42.
Despite the loss, Hays High was the team that got off to the hot start thanks to a pair of three pointers from Johnson to get a 12-11 lead before the Huskies came storming back to lead 17-13 after one quarter.
The Indians kept it close at the beginning of the second quarter, but the Huskies caught fire as they went on 20-2 run that lasted until the end of the quarter when senior Carter Lang took the inbound and nailed a half-court shot at the buzzer. Blue Valley NW had the advantage at the half, 43-23.
The focus for the Huskies in the remainder of the game was to preserve the lead they had and stop any effort for Hays High to keep it close. The Indians scored the first four points of the second half, but the Huskies went on another run of 10 points to pull in front by 26, and they ended the third quarter with a 55-32 lead.
Blue Valley NW then went on another run that started at the end of the third quarter and was an eight-point run. They led by 29, which put them one point away from a running clock, but Hays High scored nine of the final 10 points in the game. Both teams had the same number of points in the second half, and the Huskies were crowned as Hays City Shootout champions in their first-ever appearance with a 62-42 win.
The Huskies had five players reach the nine-point mark, and the leader was Trevor Garlington with 12. Elijah Bwami and Zach Fritz each had 11 points and accounted for half of the 20 steals that the Huskies had in the game as Bwami had six, and Fritz had four. Rounding out the five players to reach at least nine points were Ayden McGibboney and Aidan Ihm.
For the third game in a row, Ruder finished as the leading scorer and rebounder as he finished with 12 points and seven rebounds, and Lang was right behind Ruder in scoring with 11. The Indians also had big games from Oakley getting eight points and Johnson finishing right behind Ruder in rebounding with six rebounds.
The Indians start the year 2-1 and had a matchup on Tuesday, Dec. 10 against Liberal before coming home for their final home game before Winter Break against Junction City on Friday, Dec. 13. The Junction City game on Friday will be on 96.9 KFIX and www.hayspost.com but can also be listened to on the Tribe Broadcasting YouTube channel with Hank Corsair on the call.
