The Manhattan High School Varsity girls basketball team opened its season with a record of 1-2 at the Hays City Shootout last week, taking seventh place overall. 

In game one on Dec. 1, MHS faced the sixth-ranked team in 6A, Olathe West, and lost 58-40. Senior Destiny Yates led Manhattan with 11 points. 

“As a team we aren’t totally connected yet,” Yates said. “So my main goal [during this tournament] was to figure out how we all can play together and figure out each other’s strengths.”

On Dec. 2, MHS fell 40-31 to Hugoton in the second matchup of the tournament. Senior Avery Larson put the most points on the board for Manhattan, scoring 14 points and picking up 5 steals.

Manhattan earned its first win of the season on Dec. 3, defeating Thomas More Prep-Marian 48-33. Larson led Manhattan in scoring again with a career-high 24 points on 40% shooting from 3-point range. According to Larson, increased energy and focus on day three of the tournament contributed to the win. 

“Right away we had lots of energy and we were causing turnovers and doing everything that we had worked on in practice,” Larson said. 

Head coach Scott Mall said that he hopes the team will learn and focus on areas of improvement after this early season tournament. 

“We have to rely a lot on outside shooting [due to lack of size],” Mall said. “We really have to shoot a lot better – we didn’t shoot 40% in any of our games.”

Mall also wants the team to work on rebounding and limiting turnovers. 

“I think the biggest thing that we can take away from games like these at the beginning of the season is to just calm down and take care of the ball,” Larson said. 

Manhattan will next take the court on Dec. 6 at home against Hays, who placed second in the Hays tournament.