The South girls ran into a buzzsaw in Liberal in round two of the Salina Invitational Tournament, falling to the one seed Lady Reds by a final of 54-37. The Lady Cougars kept it close through the first quarter, trailing 11-7 upon it’s conclusion. A 7-0 run by Liberal to open the second frame pushed their lead out to double digits and they never looked back, taking a 27-12 lead at the break.

Liberal pushed their lead to 47-25 through three quarters. A low scoring fourth quarter saw many younger faces see extended minutes as the #1 seed Lady Reds defeated the #5 seed Lady Cougars 54-37.

Katie Horyna led all scorers with 18 points for Liberal. Victoria Maxton set a new career high with 12 points in the South loss. Liberal remains undefeated on the year now 10-0 while South drops to 3-7 overall.

The Lady Cougars will play for third place in the SIT tomorrow as they face off against the seventh seed Lady Trojans of Andover.

In the nightcap the South boys hung tough through the first half, but dropped their semi-final match-up as well, falling to fourth seed Andover 66-50.

The Cougars led early 5-3, but a back and forth first quarter would see the Trojans on top at it’s conclusion 21-16. An 8-4 run top begin the second quarter by South had them back within one at 25-24 with 6:00 left before halftime, but Andover would outscore them 12-5 to end the first half, with the Trojans on top at the break 37-29.

With momentum on their side, Andover pushed their lead to 17 at the end of three 54-37 and finished off Salina South by a 66-50 final.

Andrew Gagnon led the way with 19 points for the Trojans. A.J. Johnson had 16 in the loss for South. The Cougars fall to 3-7 on the regular season and will also play for third place tomorrow in the SIT as they face the sixth seed Wichita South Titans.