Manhattan High Boys Varsity Basketball (8-7) moved to fourth in the Centennial League after defeating the Seaman Vikings (7-7) Friday night 43-27. The Indians’ confidence level going into a rivalry game is at top notch.

“[The team] recognizes that we won two games in a row in league and we’ve been passing [teams], not only in the league standings but in sub-state standings,” head coach Benji George said. “We’ve been playing better really on both ends of the floor and I think the confidence level is pretty high and I think it’s going to need to be that way. We’re going to need some confidence and some toughness for a big week ahead for us.”

One of the keys to the win was defense. Seaman had turnover, after turnover, after turnover because of Manhattan’s defense and press. MHS had nine steals in the game, five coming from junior Mitch Munsen.

“Talking on defense really helped,” senior Jonah Artis said. “We were really active playing ‘Pack Line D’ and we took in what coach said and he really told us to flex our backbone and we did that and executed.”

Passing was another key to the win against Seaman. Out of the Indians’ 15 made field goals, 12 of them were assists.

“I thought we shared the ball really well in the fourth quarter and it was our most efficient quarter,” George said. “I think it just shows you that the guys are trying to trust each other and figure out the spacing within the offense. We just got a little bit of stagnant in the third quarter and that’s where the offensive struggles were.”

The MHS Boys Basketball team (8-7) will play host to the Junction City Blue Jays (7-6) tonight before traveling to Topeka to face off with the Hayden Wildcats (8-7) on Friday.

George states senior A.J. Dickerson, who averages ‘25, 26’ points per game, is the key to defeating the Blue Jays.

“We got to stop [Dickerson] in transition. We can’t leave him in the half court. We’ve got to make life tough on him and then we got to play to our strengths,” George said. “Last time we had success getting the ball in the paint. That’s where we’re going to have to get the ball in order to succeed on offense, get the ball to our bigs and get the ball in the paint.”