GARDEN CITY — In the first half of Western Athletic Conference basketball action Friday night at The Garden, the Great Bend High School Lady Panthers were right there.
Trailing only 17-15 at halftime, it appeared GBHS was primed to pull off an upset of the Lady Buffaloes, the WAC’s second-place team, a squad it took down to the wire in January in Great Bend, falling 45-41.
A scoring drought in the third quarter negated that on Friday night. Garden outscored the Lady Panthers 13-0 in the period for a commanding 30-15 lead and held on for a 37-31 win.
After the Lady Buffaloes struggled in the fourth quarter, Great Bend capitalized, slashing the gap to 32-29 with 1:48 left by virtue of a furious 14-2 run.
But Garden City refused to let Great Bend ruin their Homecoming. Taryn Tempel, who scored a game-high 17 points, drove for a layup with 1:57 remaining. Coupled with Johna McClelland sinking 1 of 2 free throws with 1:31 left and then two more from Kristen Heiman at the 16.9 mark, Garden escaped with a win.
“After a couple bad things happen, we’ve got to pull it together and find somebody to get a bucket,” said Great Bend head coach Jason Tatkenhorst, whose Lady Panthers dipped to 2-15 overall, 1-4 in conference play. “In the first half, we had some bad things happen, but all of a sudden, we had a girl that hit a big shot and we felt good about ourselves and we were going.
“In the third quarter, Garden City had a couple good things happen and we just let it keep going. You’ve got to give credit to our girls. We battled back and not one time did I get on any girl for a lack of effort.”
But nine turnovers and zero points in the opening eight minutes of the second half contributed to Great Bend’s demise.
“It seems to happen all of the time,” Tatkenhorst said. “You have to use all of your energy to come back and then we almost get there and we can’t overcome it.
“We feel like we can play with anyone, but the big thing is execution.”
Tempel’s 3-pointer late in the decisive third quarter increased the Lady Buffs’ lead to 30-15.
But sophomore guard McKenna Mauler’s second 3-point hit of the game, coming with 7:24 left in regulation, started the Lady Panthers’ surge. Also highlighting the run was Taryn Stueder’s drive for a basket and then five straight points from senior perimeter threat Kelsey Crosby, the last three coming on a 3 from the left wing with 2:17 left, pulling GBHS within 32-29.
Tempel then hit her layup before Great Bend’s Morgan Harwood scored off a power move to make it 34-31 with 1:48 left, but Garden put the game on ice at the free-throw line.
Harwood and teammate Olivia Basye both suffered injures late in the game.
“Olivia Basye took two big charging fouls (in the fourth quarter) and the second one was awful tough on her,” Tatkenhorst said. “She went to the hospital to be checked out.
“She was hit real hard in the chest and had trouble breathing.”
It was learned early Saturday morning that Basye has a bruised sternum.
Harwood banged her head on the floor while battling with a Garden player for a rebound.
“Morgan got checked out pretty good by the trainer and they were keeping an eye on her,” Tatkenhorst said. “She’s going to be OK.”

HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL
Western Athletic Conference

At Garden City
The Garden

Friday

GIRLS

Garden City 37, Great Bend 31
GREAT BEND (2-15, 1-4)
Brandi Schneider 0 0-0 0, Olivia Basye 0 3-3 3, Katelyn Henning 0 0-1 0, Hannah Hildebrand 0 0-0 0, Liz Kutina 0 4-4 4, Regan Unruh 1 0-0 3, McKenna Mauler 2 0-0 6, Tarynn Stueder 1 0-3 2, Morgan Harwood 2 0-1 4, Kelsey Crosby 4 0-0 9. Totals 10 7-12 31.
GARDEN CITY (11-6, 4-1)
Johna McClelland 1 1-2 3, Casey Curran 0 0-0 0, Kristen Heiman 4 4-5 12,  Abbey Campbell 0 1-2 1, Kennedy Brunson 1 0-0 2, Taryn Tempel 6 3-5 17, Alex Miller 0 0-0 0, Shelby Heatwole 0 0-0 0, Jaymie Bernbeck 0 2-4 2, Jessica Hinde 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 12 11-18 37.
GBHS                            7    8    0  16  —  31
Garden City                  9    8   13   7  —  37
Three-point goals — Great Bend 3 (Mauler 2, Unruh); Garden City 2 (Tempel).