Panthers can’t keep pace with Mustangs

SALINA — Taking the court for the first time in 17 days, the Concordia Panthers were overwhelmed by the Salina Central Mustangs 67-27 in the opening round of the 41st Annual Salina Central Invitational Thursday night at Salina Central High School.
With three games postponed because of inclement weather, Concordia had not played since a home loss to Clay Center back on January 7.
The Panthers also had a limited number of practices because of school being called off heading into the matchup against a Salina Central team ranked fourth in Class 5A.
With 5-5 sophomore Aubrie Kierscht knocking down three three-point shots and scoring 11 points, second-seeded Salina Central bolted to an 18-0 lead in the first six minutes of the game, and the seventh-seeded Panthers were never able to recover.
“Usually we come out of the gate pretty good, and we didn't have that spark for sure,” Concordia coach Michael Wahlmeier said, “They are a really good team. They play quick and push the ball. It seemed like they were hitting all of their shots. That first quarter was pretty rough.”
Concordia, now 1-6, drops into the consolation bracket of the tournament, and was scheduled to play sixth-seeded Wichita West at 6:00 tonight at Salina Central.
Wichita West was beaten 42-33 by third-seeded Buhler.
Salina Central plays Buhler in the semifinals.
In the other first-round games, top-seeded Liberal rolled past eighth-seeded Andover 54-21 and fourth-seeded Salina South downed fifth-seeded Abilene, 44-40.
Struggling against the Salina Central full-court pressure, the Panthers would turn the ball over six times in falling behind 18-0.
“That press we had on, our timing was just off. We had cutters coming through before the person had the ball inbounded and stuff like that. Definitely a little rusty on running our press break,” Wahlmeier said.
Concordia would go scoreless until a jumper by Kendall Reynolds 5:30 into the game made it 18-2.
Reynolds was one of just three Panthers to score in the game, and finished with 15 points.
“I thought Kendall did a good job,” Wahlmeier said.
Central scored the final eight points of the first quarter, and led 26-2.
Reynolds knocked down a three early in the second period to make it a 26-5 game.
The Mustangs then tossed in 11 straight points to go up 39-5.
Reynolds scored for Concordia, but Central answered with a three-point basket by Sara Opat to make it 42-7.
Zoe Bechard became the second Panther to score in the game by connecting on a three.
Bechard hit three threes in scoring nine points.
Reynolds would drill a three as time expired in the first half, and Concordia trailed 48-13.
Central opened the second half with a 10-0 spurt to make it 58-13.
Concordia would outscore the Mustangs 8-4 over the final four minutes of the third period, but still trailed 62-21.
With a running clock in the fourth quarter, the Panthers scored six points, on a pair of Bechard threes, to five for the Mustangs.
Karlee Wahlmeier scored three points and grabbed eight rebounds for Concordia.
Kierscht led Central with 20 points.
Mykayla Cunningham added 10 points for the Mustangs.

CONCORDIA (27)
Bechard 3-0-2 9, Nordell 0-0-2 0, Reynolds 5-2-2 15, Wahlmeier 1-1-0 3, Rundus 0-0-4 0. Totals: 9-3-10 27.
SALINA CENTRAL (67)
Opat 2-0-1 6, Cobb 4-0-2 9, Stewart 2-0-0 4, Loucks 0-0-1 0, Cunningham 2-6-0 10, Polk-Darby 1-0-0 2, Williams 3-3-2 9, Kierscht 7-2-0 20, Samilton 3-1-0 7, Freeman 0-0-1 0. Totals; 24-12-7 67.