The Salina South girls basketball team took home fourth place in the Salina Invitational Basketball Tournament. Buhler defeated the Cougars Saturday afternoon in the third place game of the tournament.

South started out strong, and lead by four at the end of the first quarter.

Buhler battled back to take a one point halftime lead.

In the second half Buhler took over the game, The Crusaders outscored South in the third quarter 13 -7 to take a 7 point lead of 35 – 28 into the final quarter. Buhler didn’t let up down the stretch and ended up winning 52 – 37.

Sydney Peterson lead the Cougars in scoring with 13. Lauren Raubenstine chipped in 9, hitting three 3 point shots.

Meanwhile, the South boys found themselves in the championship matchup, with a very tough task as they had battle the Class 5A #2 team, the Andover Trojans.

The talented Trojans started fast, scoring in transition and getting multiple opportunities right at the rim. South found themselves down by a dozen at 20-8 after the first quarter.

The Cougars were able to make some headway in the second quarter, trimming the deficit to nine at the break, 32-23.

There were several moments in the third period where it seemed the Cougars were about to put some real game pressure on Andover, getting as close as eight on a couple of occasions. But the Trojans held firm and got the lead out to 14 by the end of the third at 47-33.

Once again, South got within single digits but were not able to draw closer. Having to gamble on defense in the final minutes, it led to a series of layups for the Trojans as they went on to win the SIT by a 63-43 score.

Devon Junghans and Colin Schreiber each paced South with 10 points while Josh Jordan added eight. The Cougars saw an eight-game winning streak come to an end while Andover improved to 11-0.

The Cougars don’t have much time to rest as they travel to Derby on Tuesday.