By TODD FERTIG
TopSports.news
HUTCHINSON -- By defeating Osage City 60-44 on Saturday in Hutchinson, the Silver Lake girls won their second title in three seasons and the eighth in school history.
The Eagles built a 26-14 lead at the half, which they expanded to 40-29 after three periods.
But the Indians staged a comeback that saw the Silver Lake lead sliced to just five points, 55-50, with six minutes remaining. The Eagles defended, hit free throws and capitalized on a couple of runouts to shut down the Osage City rally.
After hitting just 8-15 from the line for three periods, Silver Lake was a perfect 10-10 in the fourth.
“In the postseason, you know you’re (facing) a good team,” Silver Lake coach Kyle Porter said. “They’re gonna make runs. We knew that they were going to get going. We knew we were gonna take a punch and we just needed to respond and play the next play.”
Porter’s star player, a senior who hardly ever makes mistakes, made one final blunder. As the final seconds ran off the clock Kailyn Hanni fired the ball high into the air and ran to embrace her teammates. The only problem was, the ball came down out of bounds with a second remaining.
“I got scared. I just threw the ball up. I didn’t know what I was doing,” Hanni laughed.
She could afford to laugh. The Fort Hays State recruit scored 21 points, hit 11-13 from the line, collected nine rebounds, dished out seven assists and drew 11 fouls on Osage City defenders.
“I said, 'You had one more second and then you could have done that,' ” Porter said of Hanni. “She’s the most complete player that I’ve ever coached. Not just what she does with the ball and her command of the entire floor, but her ability to pass, her ability to score.”
Porter said Hanni demonstrated her leadership traits when she took command of the situation when Silver Lake fell behind 7-0 to Holcomb in the semifinal contest.
“When you have a player do that, it’s one thing for a coach to do it, but when you have a player that calms everybody down, she’s just an incredible leader, and incredible kid,” Porter said. “We’re gonna miss her next year, but we’re excited for what she has in store.”
In Hanni’s four years of varsity action at Silver Lake the Eagles finished fourth her freshman year, took first her sophomore year, and lost in the state final to Halstead by three points last year. She admitted that the pain of losing outweighs the thrill of winning.
“Last year, we felt it a lot worse, and so from that day on, we were grinding until this day,” Hanni said.
“Each state championship in its own is a special journey, a special ride,” said Porter, who won a state title at Royal Valley before coming to Silver Lake six years ago. “With this one, what made it so awesome is the fact of how close we came last year and we didn’t finish the job.
"That left a sour taste in our players’ mouths. And I knew looking in the eyes of our team tonight in the fourth quarter – we were going to get (Osage City’s) best shot in the fourth quarter – I could tell that we were gonna respond and finish the game.”
Hanni scored just four points in the first half as Osage City focused on corralling her. Silver Lake sophomore Karys Deiter stepped up with 11 first-half points. Junior Savanah Wende also produced big baskets. Deiter and Wende finished with 19 and 10 points respectively.
“Karys has played a lot of basketball in her life and that experience, along with Kailyn, that pays dividends in a game like this,” Porter said. “She stepped up in a big way. We needed to have complimentary scoring tonight. It couldn’t just be Kailyn and Savanah (Wende). It’s got to be everybody, and it was really nice to see Karys step up.”
“I was really happy to see Savanah and Karys really come out on top in that first half. And then my coach was like ‘Ok, time to turn it on.’ And I was like ‘Ok, let’s go.’ ” Hanni said.
The Eagles ended the season with just one defeat, a 55-53 loss to Rock Creek in late January. Porter said the loss actually helped spur the team to the championship.
“With every game, you’re gonna learn from it, you’re gonna grow from it and improve,” Porter said. “And I think when you lose, you have the attention of the entire team. Playing good competition allows you to see your warts for what they are and what you need to do to get better. Anytime you have that, that motivation, it lights a little bit of a fire.”
The Rock Creek loss didn’t just provide a teaching tool. It caused the team to shift its focus.
“One thing we’ve talked about as a program this year, and it came along kind of after we played Rock Creek and we played Riley County and didn’t play super well, we needed to find joy again,” Porter said. “We needed to enjoy the journey. We had a lot of expectations. For us, joy is approaching the next moment with a sense of optimism, like something good is gonna happen. And then having the attitude that we’re going to go make it happen.”
SILVER LAKE GIRLS 60, OSAGE CITY 44
Silver Lake 11 15 14 20 -- 60
Osage City 8 6 15 15 -- 44
Silver Lake (28-1) – Kailyn Hanni 5-9 11-13 21, Whitehead 2-5 0-4 4, Heiman 2-3 2-2 6, Deiter 6-13 5-6 19, Wende 4-11 0-0 10, Kylie Hanni 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 19-42 18-25 60.
Osage City (25-4) – Speece 4-9 4-6 15, Pitts 1-3 0-0 3, Kitselman 0-5 0-0 0, Boss 3-12 0-0 6, Jenkins 6-9 6-10 18, Serna 1-1 0-0 2, Watson 0-0 0-0 0, Lohmeyer 0-0 0-0 0, Brabb 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-39 10-16 44.
3-point goals – Silver Lake 4 (Deiter 2, Wende 2), Osage City 4 (Speece 3, Pitts). Total fouls – Silver Lake 13, Osage City 18. Fouled out – none. Technical fouls – none.
