In a basketball matchup of Barton County rivals, where every possession was precious, the Hoisington High School girls’ basketball team held off Great Bend for a 35-33 non-conference victory on Tuesday night at Panther Fieldhouse.
Savannah Rose’s basket with 1:04 left in the fourth quarter gave the Lady Cardinals a 34-30 lead, and Jordin Greer sank 1 of 2 free throws with 8.1 seconds remaining for a five-point cushion.
“(Great Bend) did a great job on the offensive end, crashing the boards hard, and we weren’t securing the basketball and it got a little tense,” Hoisington head coach Mandy Mason said. “Down the stretch, I thought we had some good offensive sets and got some great looks at the basket.”
Great Bend’s McKenna Mauler hit two fourth-quarter 3-pointers — her second coming with only 0.9 seconds remaining — but it was the only points the Lady Panthers scored in the fourth quarter as they came up shy.
Hoisington, which had lost three of its last four entering the game, improved to 11-4 on the season. Great Bend fell to 1-13.
“The main thing is we go into halftime up three,” GBHS head coach Jason Tatkenhorst said of the Lady Panthers’ 24-21 halftime lead. “We only gave up 14 points in the second half and we were ahead at halftime and we lose.
“That’s tough.”
The Lady Panthers scored only nine points in the second half, which undoubtedly contributed to their undoing.
“You can’t really pick on our press or our defense. We had some shots that didn’t go down and that’s frustrating,” Tatkenhorst said.
Mauler finished with 10 points, the only Great Bend player in double figures,
Mallory Flagor led the way for Class 3A Hoisington with 14 points and Rose added seven points.
“It’s a big win for us,” Mason said. “Every game that we win is huge for us and Great Bend has played some very tough basketball teams.
“They’re playing at  5A-6A level and their record may be deceiving, but they’ve got some very good athletes in their program and Coach Tatkenhorst does a great job with his team. We haven’t played a 5A school, so this was our first big win at that level.”
Great Bend travels to Liberal on Friday for a Western Athletic Conference game before returning home on Saturday to take on Manhattan in non-conference action.

HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL
Non-Conference

Tuesday

At Great Bend
Panther Fieldhouse

GIRLS
Hoisington 35, Great Bend 33
HOISINGTON (11-4)
     Mykela Riedl 0 0-0 0, BreAnna Burns 1 0-0 2, Jordin Greer 1 3-4 5, Savannah Rose 3 1-4 7, Brandy Wondra 0 2-2 2, Blakelee Cooper 2 0-0 5, Mallory Flagor 7 0-1 14. Totals 14 6-13 35.
GREAT BEND (1-13)
     Brandi Schneider 0 0-0 0, Emily Cruse 1 0-0 2, Olivia Basye 2 0-0 6, Katelyn Henning 0 1-2 1, Hannah Hildebrand 0 0-0 0, Liz Kutina 3 1-2 7, Regan Unruh 0 0-0 0, Kaylie Doll 0 0-0 0, McKenna Mauler 4 0-0 10, Tarynn Stueder 0 0-0 0, Morgan Harwood 2 1-1 5, Kelsey Crosby 1 0-0 2. Totals 13 3-5 33.
Hoisington       15   6   7   7  —  35
Great Bend      12  12  3   6  —  33
    Three-point goals — Great Bend 4 (Mauler 2, Basye 2); Hoisington 1 (Cooper). Total fouls — Great Bend 14, Hoisington 6. Fouled out — None.