The Abilene High School basketball teams both fell on the second day of the Salina Invitational Tournament.  The Cowboys upset bid fell short in a 63-50 setback to Andover.  The Cowgirls also played Andover and were doomed by a scoreless third quarter in a 53-33 loss to the Lady Trojans in the consolation semifinals.

The Andover boys entered the semifinals undefeated and are the top seed in the tournament.  Only two teams this season have lost to them by less than 10 points.  The Trojans opened the tournament with an impressive 67-46 victory over Salina Central Thursday night.  Abilene was able to hang with the Trojans though in the first half as Andover led 29-28 at halftime.  The Cowboys led 36-33 with 3:16 to play in the third quarter after a Travis Beetch free-throw but the lead would be short lived.  Andover finished the quarter on an 11-0 run and scored the first 4 points of the fourth quarter to take a commanding 48-36 lead.  Andover led by as many as 15 points in the final quarter.  The Cowboys hit all 10 of their free-throws and got a big effort from Sophomore Kaleb Becker to get deficit down to 9 points on multiple occasions but that’s as Abilene would get the rest of the way.  Becker finished with a career-high 19 points in the loss.

The Cowboys dropped to 5-4 with the loss and will play either Salina South or Wichita South for 3rd place Saturday at 3:30 at Kansas Wesleyan University.

The Cowgirls got outscored 18-0 in the third quarter in their loss to Andover.  Abilene was only down by 6 at halftime and the Cowgirls actually outscored the Lady Trojans in the second and fourth quarters.  Abilene was led by Abi Lillard who finished with a career high 12 points for a second consecutive night.

Abilene fell to 3-6 with the loss and lost their fifth straight game.  The Cowgirls will play Concordia for seventh place Saturday at 11 AM at Salina Central High School.  The Lady Panthers lost 36-28 to Wichita West on Friday.