Unable to gain a lead, the Manhattan High Varsity girls basketball team fell to Washburn Tuesday night 27-57.

“I was really upset. I hate losing and I hate ending games like that,” sophomore Maxine Doering said, “but, hopefully, it’s encouragement and sparks us to work really hard at practice this week.”

Throughout the game, Washburn Rural collected rebound after rebound, leading to several point opportunities Manhattan High could have prevented.

“I think sometimes we forget that [rebounding is] part of [the game],” Doering said. “We kind of, unfortunately, just … expect that ball to go in and we should think the other way … That’s a big part of basketball and unfortunately, we didn’t do too well in that area [against Washburn Rural].”

Especially in the first half, Washburn Rural maintained possession of the ball.

“Washburn is a very, very fast team and we’re not as fast,” Doering said, “and so I think a lot of [the reason Washburn had possession] was we were trying to match their speeds and we should have just matched their speed on defense, so play them really tight and fast on the defensive end, nut do our part on the offensive end and just slow down.”

Overall, the team excelled at communication throughout the game, according to Doering.

“I thought our talk was really great … even coming out into the third quarter was great,” Doering said. “I think we fought through the whole game, but now we just have to execute and put shots in.”

Still, the team plans to work on keeping up their energy.

“I thought our number one struggle was consistency. We had a lot of points where we would be doing great and then we would get in a rut and then we would turn over the ball or miss layups,” Doering said. “In sports, I think the main key is doing the little things right and that makes the big things come together.”

Manhattan will take on Seaman away on Friday.