The Abilene High School basketball teams split with Wamego Friday night in Abilene.  The girls continued their trend of playing an opponent much better in second match-up.  The Lady Red Raiders defeated the Cowgirls by 34 on January 14th but Friday night Wamego would need a second half comeback in their 43-33 victory.  The boy’s game wasn’t a game.  In the first match-up Abilene needed double-overtime.  Not Friday night, the Cowboys cruised to a 70-34 victory.

In the Cowgirls loss, they got out to a 8-1 lead at the end of the first quarter.  Junior, Abi Lillard helped Abilene get out to the quick start with 6 points in the opening quarter.  She finished the game with a career high 20 points.  Wamego, on the other hand, got off to a slow start and didn’t make their first field goal until the 6:19 mark of the second quarter.  The basket by Paige Donnelly started at 12-0 run for the Lady Red Raiders to get them back in the game after they had trailed 10-1.  The Cowgirls would counter the Wamego run with a 7-2 run to close the half and take a a 17-15 lead into the locker room.

The Lady Red Raiders scored the first 11 points of the third quarter and held Abilene to only 3 points in the quarter to take a 30-20 advantage in the fourth.  Wamego led by as many as 12 points on multiple occasions in the fourth.  Wamego improved to 13-4, 5-2  with the victory and Abilene slipped to 5-11, 2-5 with the loss.

In the boy’s game, the Cowboy held Wamego to only 4 second quarter points and led 27-10 lead at halftime.  Kaleb Bccker’s three-pointer at the buzzer to end the half was a sign of things to come for Abilene.  The Cowboys exploded for 27 third quarter points and took a 54-23 lead after three-quarters which led to a running clock in the fourth quarter.

Junior, Avery Bryson tied his career-high with 18 points in the win.  It’s the second time in the last three games that he reached that total.  Travis Beetch also chipped in with 16.  Wamego’s leading scorer Tanner Hecht finished with 9 points which is nearly half of his season average.  The Cowboys won their fourth game in a row and improved to 11-5, 6-1 while Wamego slipped to 7-10, 4-3.