Liberal dominates Panther girls

SALINA — A Liberal High School girls’ basketball team that had its run of four consecutive Salina Invitational Tournament championships halted with a loss to Andover in the semifinals took out its frustrations on the Concordia Panthers in the third-place game.
Liberal had its run of tournament titles halted with the 37-31 setback to Andover in the semifinals.
The Redskins scored the first 15 points of the game on its way to a dominating 65-8 victory over Concordia Saturday afternoon at Kansas Wesleyan University.
Concordia (3-10) opened the tournament with a victory over Wichita West on Thursday and then fell 63-17 to eventual champion Salina Central, a team that is unbeaten and ranked number one in Class 5A.
“I think that we were just beyond tired,” Concordia coach Carly Bloomfield said of the loss to Liberal. “I felt like Central put more pressure on us and were more active than Liberal, but we had a tougher time with Liberal. I think some of it was, there is no one in the stands, it is an afternoon game on Saturday, and it is your third game.”
Concordia scored just two points in the first quarter on a pair of free throws by Taylor McDaniel, and trailed 24-2 heading into the second period.
Ashley Carrillo scored 11 points as the Redskins outscored the Panthers 16-2 in the second stanza to go up 40-4 at halftime.
Erinae Flesher scored two of her four points for Concordia in the quarter.
“Them not being able to score made it more frustrating,” Bloomfield said.
With the Panthers playing a third game in three days, Bloomfield began to rotate players in the second half with all 12 suited up seeing playing time.
“I decided I was going to play some younger kids, fresher legs. We have Abilene coming up in a couple of days,” Bloomfield said. “The non-starters actually did really, really well. I thought their movement on the court, their positioning was good. They tried a couple of things on offense that they haven’t even tried in a JV game. So I was really proud of the younger kids.”
Liberal (9-2) would toss in 17 points in the third quarter.
Concordia scored two points on two more free throws by McDaniel, who matched Flesher with four points.
Liberal added eight points in the final period to two for the Panthers.
Carrillo led Liberal with 26 points. Keyona Hall added 14 points.
“The Wichita West game was important and the rest of it was about learning experiences and opportunities,” Bloomfield said.
Top-seeded Salina Central downed Andover 56-36 in the championship game on Saturday.
Salina South defeated Abilene 46-27 in the fifth-place game and Buhler dropped Wichita West 36-28 in the seventh-place game.
Salina Central 63, Concordia 17
Salina Central overwhelmed Concordia early with a barrage of three-point shots on its way to the semifinal victory Friday night at Kansas Wesleyan University.
Concordia scored first in the game on a basket by Taylor McDaniel.
After going 2:30 without scoring, the Mustangs connected on six three-point shots, five by senior guard Aubrie Kierscht, to open up an 18-2 lead.
A basket by Mykayla Cunningham pushed Central’s lead to 20-6.
“Salina Central, that is probably the best high school team I have ever seen. They have four kids, at least, who already have signed or have offers from (NCAA) Division I and Division II schools. I have never seen that many talented players on the floor at one time,” Bloomfield said.
Baskets by Carlie Carlgren and Ashley Bartlett in the final 40 seconds of the first quarter made it a 20-6 game.
Clamping down on defense in the second quarter, the Mustangs would shut out the Panthers.
With six different players scoring, Central pumped in 24 points in the period to make it a 44-6 game at halftime.
The Mustangs then outscored the Panthers 15-3 in the third quarter to go up 59-9.
Concordia, getting four points from Cianna DeLeon, doubled up Central 8-4 in the final period.
“We talked a lot about using that game as a way to learn about overcoming adversity,” Bloomfield said.
Carlgren scored six points for Concordia and DeLeon added five.
Kierscht finished with 19 points for Central. Cunningham scored 12 points.
The Panthers are back in action Tuesday night with a North Central Kansas League game at Abilene.

CONCORDIA (8)
Parker 0-0-1 0, DeLeon 0-0-1 0, Acree 0-0-2 0, Carlgren 0-0-1 0, Flesher 2-0-0 4, McDaniel 0-4-0 4. Totals: 2-4-5 8.
LIBERAL (65)
Carrillo 11-1-1 26, Ormiston 1-0-0 3, Terrazas 0-1-0 1, Hall 6-0-0 14, Thatcher 1-0-3 2, Contreras 3-0-2 8, Horyna 2-0-0 5, West 3-0-2 6. Totals: 27-2-8 65.

CONCORDIA (17)
DeLeon 1-2-1 5, Acree 0-0-1 0, Carlgren 3-0-0 6, Williams 0-0-1 0, Bartlett 1-0-0 2, McDaniel 1-2-1 4. Totals: 6-4-4 17.
SALINA CENTRAL (63)
Hall 1-0-0 3, Owen 1-0-0 2, Vidrickson 1-0-0 2, Stewart 3-1-0 8, Cunningham 6-0-0 12, O’Mara 0-0-1 0, Peckham 2-2-3 6, Williams 3-1-0 9, Kierscht 6-0-1 19, Samilton 1-0-1 2. Totals: 25-4-7 63.