GARDEN CITY — Practice your free throws. Every day.
It saved the Great Bend High School Panthers in their Western Athletic Conference opener against Garden City Friday night at The Garden.
Senior guard Will Gray converted 5 of 7 free throws in the final 26.8 seconds of regulation, lifting Great Bend to a 42-37 road victory over the stubborn Buffaloes.
“Will stepped up and did a great job at the line,” Great Bend head coach Chris Battin said of Gray, who finished 7-for-9 on foul shots. “He knocked down some big, big free throws for us.
“We were a little rattled there in the fourth quarter and (Garden) they were playing good defense and getting after us and he stepped up like a senior should and knocked down some big free throws.”
Great Bend (4-3, 1-0) now has a chance to move to 2-0 in the WAC, providing it can beat Hays on Tuesday night in the Panthers’ conference home opener.
 “This game, we needed to win, just for our confidence,” Battin said. “It’s nice to come in to a hostile environment and come away with a win.
“Any time you can win on the road in the WAC, I think that’s a big deal. It definitely gives us some confidence after the McPherson loss.
“We’re ready to bring it back home against Hays.”
To be sure, it looked as if the reeling Buffaloes (1-6, 0-2) were as good as dead, trailing 29-18 late in the third quarter in a slowdown game that crept into the final period.
Garden City head coach Jacy Holloway was whistled for a technical foul with 4:37 for barking at officials. His team trailed 37-25 after the Panthers’ Jace Bowman sank both technical foul shots, but that’s when the Buffaloes started making their run.
Garden scored eight unanswered points, capped by Jake Curran’s jumper from just inside the top of the key to make it a 37-33 with 1:54 remaining.
After Great Bend’s Greg Hildebrand missed the front end of a one-and-one free-throw opportunity with 1:10 remaining,  the Buffs got even closer at 37-34 after Cody Bernbeck made the second of two foul shots with 49.9 seconds remaining.
But Gray’s free throws down the stretch put it away for the Panthers.
“We played well there in a stretch during the second half,” Holloway said, “but it came down to physicality. That’s two games in a row that we’ve been outmuscled.
“That’s a big issue for us right now.”
Holloway was alluding to GBHS post player Roderick Frise, who broke down the Buffs by attacking the basket in scoring a team-high 12 points.
“He was solid and he got a lot of open shots, too,” Holloway said. “A lot of his shots weren’t as tough as we would like.
“Whenever you get a free lane to the basket, it’s hard to beat guys that get layups and that’s what we were doing … giving up a lot of layups.”
Garden had no one to match up with the 6-foot-4 Frise, a junior.
“Rod did a great job,” Battin said. “I’ll tell you, the play that I’m most proud of was there was one time that he dove on the floor and grabbed a rebound and makes an outset pass.
“All of a sudden, he’s up running and the guys find him for a layup. That’s just great, superior hustle and that’s what we like out of Rod. He played really big. He’s starting to have good court awareness and knows spacing. He has a knack for finding some holes and getting into the open area and making some shots.”