Struggling for a better portion of three quarters, the Great Bend High School Lady Panthers made a furious comeback bid against visiting Pratt Friday night.
After pulling within 26-25 with 2:57 left, Great Bend couldn’t get some crucial shots to drop down the stretch as the Greenbacks held on for a 30-27 victory at the GBHS Fieldhouse.
A spirited partisan crowd tried to will the Lady Panthers, who trailed 26-17 with 5:31 left in the fourth, to victory, inasmuch as GBHS did with its perimeter shooting.
Senior Jordan Haney converted a pair of free throws at the four-minute mark and later popped in a basket from the left wing, trimming the deficit to 26-22 with 3:28 left.
The Lady Panthers then made it a 26-25 ballgame at the 2:57 mark after Taycee Bunn swished a 3-pointer from the left wing. It appeared they were on the threshold of coming all the way back in a game where the host team trailed nearly the entire way.
Pratt’s Aubrey Hoover had other ideas, but not before some frantic moments which included a missed 3-pointer by the Greenbacks’ Cheyenne Eisenhour, followed by a jump ball, with the possession arrow pointed Pratt’s way
After a Greenbacks turnover and a full timeout called by Great Bend, Haney was whistled for an illegal pick at the 1:20 mark.
Hoover, a 6-foot junior, sucked out some of the Lady Panthers’ momentum after nailing a 15-foot basket on the baseline, giving Pratt a 28-25 edge near the one-minute mark.
After GBHS misfired on a 3-pointer, Eisenhour missed a pair of free throws with 48 seconds left. Senior guard Lexie Brack then answered on the other end  with a 12-foot basket from the baseline to pull the Lady Panthers within 28-27.
But Pratt’s Dominque Staats scored on a layup in the final seconds to fix the final margin.
The Greenbacks (1-0), playing in their season opener, seized a 7-4 lead after one quarter. Senior forward Cassidy Tutak scored both of Great Bend’s baskets, her second field goal coming on a wing shot off an assist from senior guard Jennifer Allende.
The Lady Panthers then hit a wall offensively, going over five minutes without a point in the second quarter as their turnovers began to mount.
Bunn finally ended the drought by sinking a pair of free throws with 2:41 left in the half as GBHS closed to 13-6. It turned out to be its only points of the second quarter as the Lady Panthers wouldn’t score a basket again until Kaitlee Spray hit a layup with 4:54 left in the third quarter, which put the score at 20-8 Pratt.
The Lady Panthers committed 14 turnovers in the first half alone, and 22 for the game. Yet Allende helped spearhead their late surge by disrupting Pratt’s offensive flow in the passing lanes and made five steals by herself.
Shortly after Brack hit a basket from the wing, she made the first of two foul shots at the 1:08 mark in the third quarter and then senior teammate Kalie LeShore hit a layup off an Allende steal to close the gap to 22-15 with 45 seconds left in the period.
That set the stage for Great Bend’s too little, too late surge, which kicked in after Payton Hoeme hit a turnaround shot in the lane and Jenson Maydew converted a pair of free throws to make it 26-17 with 5 ½ minutes to go.
Great Bend gets back into action on Tuesday night, when the Lady Panthers entertain Class 6A Manhattan at 6 p.m.