PRATT — The Central Plains High School girls’ basketball team will be heading to the Class 2A state tournament in Manhattan on Wednesday after Saturday night’s 55-53 victory over Sterling.
Jennifer Hitschmann hit the go-ahead field goal with 16 seconds remaining to give the Lady Oilers the sub-state win.
“They got off a shot, but it hit the side of the backboard,” Central Plains head coach Toby Holmes said. ”We pressured them all the way down the court. We made them take up some time, but they got a shot. They missed and time ran out.”
The school is making the trip to the state tournament in its first year of existence after combining Claflin and Quivira Heights.
“There were a lot of people that said it couldn’t be done,” Holmes said. “You couldn’t bring together two rival schools and play ball together, but this group of girls proved them all wrong.”
Sydney Rugan scored 18 points to lead the Lady Oilers. Janae Hekele scored 12 points, and Lindsey Woodmansee finished with 10 points to join her in double figures.
“Woodmansee had eight in the fourth quarter,” Holmes said. “She went to the basket one time and she got fouled. She hit the free throw. Then she scored on a 6-footer and then hit a 3-pointer. There were her eight points.”

St. John 44,
South Central 25
COLDWATER — It was a rematch of last year’s Class 1A Division-I sub-state championship.
The outcome was not the same.
Up 11-10 at intermission, the St. John girls outscored South Central 20-0 in the third quarter to take a 31-10 lead entering the final eight minutes. A lead they never relinquished.
“We had played really good defense in the first half,” St. John head coach Danny Smith said. “They had only scored 10 points. We only had 11 because we couldn’t hit any shots.
“Then we came out in the third quarter and started knocking down some shots.”
Smith said a trio of 3-pointers sparked the Lady Tigers.
“Morgan (Osborne), Jamie (Waters) and Teresa (Wade) each hit a 3 in that order,” Smith said. “That really got us going. We started hitting shots and running the floor better. We started getting easy layups off of transition.”
Smith said that his team will either face Centralia or Caldwell in the first round of the state tournament on Thursday in Emporia.
“We’re glad to be back,” Smith said. “We felt like we should have been there last year, but we didn’t make it. This year, we did. The girls have the attitude that they can beat anybody.”

Victoria 56, Otis-Bison 43
HOISINGTON — The Victoria girls led Otis-Bison 16-4 after the first quarter, and the Lady Cougars were unable to make up the ground in spite of outscoring the Lady Knights 22-12 in the final eight minutes.
Victoria was led by sophomore Audra Nowak, who finished with 20 points.
Hannah Bannister led Otis-Bison with 13 points.

Class 1A Division-II
Sub-state tournament

At Hoisington

GIRLS

Saturday
Victoria 56, Otis-Bison 43
OTIS-BISON (10-11)
     Annie Kraisinger 2 2-4 6, 3 0-0 7, Hannah Bannister 3 6-8 13, Kim Pechanec 3 1-2 8, MacKenzie Boone 1 0-0 2, Janel Tammen 3 1-5 7. Totals 15 10-19 43.
VICTORIA (15-6)
     M. Crawford 2 0-0 4, Huser 4 1-2 10, Schmidt 1 0-0 3, Pfannenstiel 0 0-0 0, Nowak 9 2-2 20, Broyles 2 0-0 4, Dome 3 0-0 9, Goetz 1 0-0 2, Braun 2 0-0 4, A. Crawford 0 0-0 0. Totals 24 3-4 56.
Otis-Bison    4  12  5  22  —  43
Victoria      16  13  15  12  —  56
     Three-point goals — Otis-Bison 3 (Nelson, Bannister, Pechanec); Victoria 5 (Dome 3, Schmidt, Huser).