Manhattan High girls’ basketball opened the playoffs with a successful bird hunt Tuesday night.
The No. 4-seeded Indians advanced to the sub-state final with a dominant 67-21 win over No. 13 seed Lawrence Free State.
“We came out and took care of business,” head coach Scott Mall said. “We played good defense. Right from the start, we knew we had to focus. And then offensively, I thought we did really well, we did a good job of doing different things and making the most of them.”
The regular season saw Manhattan secure a share of the Centennial League title. The start of the new season — the postseason — brought a wire-to-wire win with a running clock late.
“You want to get the win, that’s the important thing,” Mall said. “And it’s especially nice to get the win without it coming down to the wire or anything. That’s always nice, hopefully that makes us feel good, but also save some energy for Friday, because we’ll need it because Wichita East is very, very talented.”
Manhattan carded 11 scorers, led by Evie Banks, who scored 16 points. The sophomore also broke the program’s single-season record for 3-pointers, while senior Delaney Larson climbed into the top four in all-time assists and scored 10 points.
