Manhattan High varsity boys basketball (6-7) placed sixth in the McPherson Invitational Basketball Tournament this past week. The Indians were guaranteed three games in the tournament and went 1-2 in those games.

Their first game they were up against the Shawnee Mission East Lancers (7-5). The Indians were up a good portion of the game, even by 10 at one point. Late in the game, Shawnee Mission East went ahead and would win the game 67-65. Head coach Benji George emphasized body language as one of the key factors in the loss.

“I was just tired of it,” George said. “We just go through phases of the game where we have to fix our faces more than anything. It’s not something they haven’t heard from me before. It’s something we have to keep working on.”

After the loss the team would face off with the Mill Valley Jaguars (2-13) in the consolation semifinal of the tournament. The team dominated from the start and wouldn’t hold back downing the Jaguars 57-30 off of 34 bench points from MHS, including 14 points, seven rebounds, and three steals from Junior Mitch Munsen.

“Fatigue was a little bit of a factor on Thursday, and it really showed in our sloppiness and turning the ball over,” George said. “We went into the game just with the intent of using our bench more often and earlier in the game and it paid dividends.”

After the win the team would be up against the Blue Valley West Jaguars (7-7) in the consolation championship. The Jaguars were up majority of the game and the Indians couldn’t ever cut it close falling to Blue Valley West 42-51.

“We didn’t handle the physicality of the game very well,” George said. “[Blue Valley West] were a lot more physical than what we were used to. We handled it by just settling on offense. I thought we were really settled and took a lot of contested shots, we basically shot our turnovers.”

The Indians (6-7) will be back in action this Wednesday against Topeka West Chargers (3-7) on home soil.

“We just need to value the ball more and trust ourselves and our teammates,” junior Tyce Hoover said.