Manhattan Indians boys basketball is State-bound for the first time since 2023, a 180-degree turnaround from last season. The Indians have gone from six wins a season ago to cutting down the net in their own gym following a 57-48 win vs. Wichita East in the Sub-State Finals Saturday.
“It just means a lot coming from last year, going 6-15,” senior Tim Washington said. “Everyone in school [was] doubting us; now everyone’s celebrating us.”
Washington and fellow seniors Will Carpenter, Vince Doering and Sawyer Newton all got to celebrate a win in their final home game.
“It’s a memory I’ll never forget,” Carpenter said. “It’s special to win the last one.”
MHS led Wichita East 23-12 at halftime and pushed it to 40-22 after the third quarter.
“I think we made a huge statement that we’re going to defend,” head coach Benji George said.
Despite Wichita East more than doubling their own score with 26 points in the fourth quarter, the Indians held on to win the game by nine.
“We were trained for it,” George said. “Move the ball around, find the open man, hunt layups, make free throws. I thought we showed good poise in that moment. And we really spent the last two days in practice preparing for it.”
Carpenter led the Indians with 15 points in his 12th-straight double-digit scoring game. Doering made his mark as well, adding 12 points to the scoreboard.
The Indians turned the ball over 11 times, a vast improvement over their 20 turnovers in the first round of Sub-State against Wichita Northwest. The Indians beat Northwest 58-56 at home on March 4 off a season-saving buzzer beater delivered by Doering in the final second. The buzzer beater against Northwest was the exact same play design as the Indians used with Doering one game prior to beat Washburn Rural 60-58 in overtime on Feb. 27.
“I think I just keep getting lucky,” Doering said after beating Wichita NW.
Doering also made history against Wichita East, becoming the new all-time program leader in steals, after breaking the single-season steals record earlier this season.
“He’s as good as I’ve ever coached [at plucking],” George said. “It shows in our record books.”
Win or lose at State, the Indians will have a lot to remember about this season; including winning an outright Centennial League title, being the first MHS team to beat Junction City in their new building and George setting the new program record for career wins by a head coach.
In the first round of State, the eighth-seeded Indians (17-7) will face top-seeded Shawnee Mission South (24-1) at Kansas City Community College on March 11. George believes the Indians can be a spoiler to Shawnee’s season.
“I mean, it’s why you play basketball in March, right? Anybody that is a fan of basketball watches March Madness,” George said. “And part of the madness is that the top seed doesn’t always win. And there’s a history of examples of that. We’re going to do our part to be a part of it …We’re not climbing Mount Everest. They’re human beings. They make mistakes. They miss shots. They’re going to turn the ball over. We’re going to capitalize on that and go make a little bit of history ourselves.”
