The Hutchinson Central Christian High School girls basketball team lost to Hanover 51-31 in the semifinals of the Kansas Class 1A Division II girls state tournament Friday afternoon at Emporia’s White Auditorium.
The Central Christian Cougar girls (25-3) will play Bucklin (22-3) in the third-place game at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. Bucklin lost to Linn 55-49 in the other Class 1A Division II girls semifinal game.
Hanover (25-1) will play Linn (23-5) in the 1A DII girls championship game at 4:30 p.m. Saturday. Hanover is trying to win a fourth straight 1A DII state championship.
Hanover led Central Christian 8-7 in the first quarter, 16-11 at halftime, 35-24 in the third quarter and won the game by 20 points with a 16-7 run in the fourth quarter. Hanover’s biggest lead was 24 points.
Jessa Losew led the CCS Cougars with 9 points and Reese Swanson scored 8. Avery Duft tallied 6 points, Avery Kauffman 3, Harper Newcome 2, Lily Lang 2 and Ava Newcome 2. Kauffman and Ava Newcome each had 3 assists. Losew had 6 rebounds and 4 steals.
Einslee Stallbaumer led the Hanover Wildcats with 12 points and Nora Helman added 11.
In Linn’s victory over Bucklin, Linn took an 18-10 lead after one quarter and led at halftime 29-23. Bucklin cut the Linn lead to 38-36 at the end of the third quarter. Linn pulled away from Bucklin with a 17-13 fourth quarter.
Gretchen Bott led Linn in scoring with 20 points, grabbed 7 rebounds and dished off 6 assists. Josie Oehmke added 13 points. Baliegh Peters tallied 10 points, 4 assists and 2 steals. Geni Turk had 6 points and 7 rebounds.
Tristan Stout led the Bucklin Red Aces with 17 points and 5 steals, Emmerson Kirk had 13 points and 8 rebounds. Karlee Adams scored 8 points. Isabel Bowman had 6 points and 4 steals.
