LARNED — Seeking the back-to-back wins for the first time all season, the Great Bend High School Panthers came up with their best scoring quarter of the season.
Trailing Larned 26-24 at halftime, the Panthers roared back with a 20-4 surge in the third period and cruised to a 61-45 victory in non-conference basketball action on Tuesday night.
“Any time you win you’ve got to be happy with it, but you don’t have to be satisfied,” said Great Bend head coach Chris Battin, whose team improved to 4-9 on the season. “We’ll watch the film and figure out what we did wrong and make sure we improve as a team.”
Jace Bowman, a 6-foot-3 senior swingman, poured in 19 points and Ethan Henderson, a 6-2 junior forward, added a career-high 17 points for the Panthers.
Bowman scored 14 of his points in the first half, where Larned built a narrow halftime lead before Great Bend, coming off a win over Wichita Haysville Campus in the seventh-place game of the 2012 Bluestem Classic last Saturday in El Dorado, cut loose in the third quarter.
Bowman and Henderson’s scoring offset 16 points from Larned guard Jahman Hill, along with 16 points from 6-2 sophomore swingman Cameron Brown.
Hill single-handedly brought the Indians (2-12) back from an 18-7 deficit after one quarter. Hill, a 6-0 senior, scored 11 straight points during the final 2:46 of the second quarter. He capped it by going 7-for-8 at the free-throw line for their two-point lead at break.
“Jahman had 11 points and Cameron had eight points in the second quarter, getting to the basket,” Larned head coach Kevin Brown said, “and a lot of that was in transition against their press.
“In the third quarter, (Great Bend) got out of the press and made us run our half-court offense and they did a better job of stopping our half-court.”
The Panthers weathered Hill’s bid in trying to help Larned pull off an upset special by cutting loose after halftime with their pivotal surge. The Panthers unleashed a 17-0 run that included seven points from Bowman and was capped by Matt Marshall’s outlet pass to Henderson, who streaked downcourt for a layup and subsequent three-point play to give GBHS a 44-30 lead after three quarters.
“We finally got our minds right and played well in the third quarter,” Battin said. “We got the ball stopped, at times, and they were killing our press and it was mainly because we weren’t guarding the basketball and weren’t stepping and getting some stops.
“We started getting stops in the third quarter, that’s really all it was. We started guarding the ball and kept them out of the lane.”
Great Bend is idle until next Tuesday, when it entertains Hoisington.

HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL

At Larned
Non-Conference

Tuesday

BOYS
Great Bend 61, Larned 45
GREAT BEND (4-9)
   Connor Sell 0 0-0 0, Matt Marshall 2 0-0 4, Chad Touslee 2 2-5 6, Brock Ibarra 0 0-0 0, Bryce Beck 1 3-4 5, Gabe Joiner 1 0-0 2, Jace Bowman 7 3-5 19, Ethan Henderson 7 3-3 17, Blaise Cain 0 0-0 0, Wyatt Bayless 2 4-4 8. Totals 22 15-21 61.
LARNED (2-12)
    Jahman Hill 4 7-8 16, Grant Unruh 1 0-3 2, Cameron Brown 8 0-3 16, Jeret Johnson 0 0-0 0, Easton Palmer 2 1-2 6, Zach Houser 1 0-0 3, Nolan Allison 1 0-0 2, Camryn Bryant 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 8-16 45.
Great Bend      18   6  20 17  —  61
Larned              7  19  4   15  — 45
   Three-point goals — Larned 3 (Houser, Hill, Palmer); Great Bend 2 (Bowman 2). Total fouls — Larned 14, Great Bend 12. Fouled out — Larned (Allison).