When junior Cade Roberts threw down a dunk in transition Friday evening in Hays, he wasn’t completely confident that he could convert.

After all, Friday was only his second game at the varsity level, and nerves prevented him from ever dunking in J.V. games a year ago.

But the 6-7 forward transferred the ball into his right hand, skied into the air and finished emphatically. A smile crept across Roberts’ face.

The finish wasn’t worth any more points than either of his other two field goals on the night, but the deuce nonetheless contributed to the Manhattan High boys basketball team’s 66-57 Hays City Shoot-Out semifinal win over Garden City on Friday. The victory sends the Indians onto the title game Saturday night.

“When I caught it, I tried to pace myself when I was running down the floor,” Roberts said. “I looked at the rim, and I tried to get up there, and I heard it wasn’t the prettiest dunk, but it was my first dunk. I was pretty excited.”

The slam was only the first of back-to-back buckets for the junior. After Manhattan forced a Buffalo turnover on the ensuing possession, Roberts positioned himself in the lane. He snatched up a tipped pass, fought through contact and deposited the ball into the basket.

Roars pierced the Hays High gym, and the Indians were up double digits in the third frame, 42-29.

But as was the tale of the game, after the Indians made the run, Garden City wasn’t done.

Zac Karlin knocked down three consecutive triples for the Buffaloes, and just three minutes after Roberts’ and-one, Manhattan’s lead was down to 42-38.

Head coach Benji George attributed the quick turnaround to his team’s mindset.

“I think we got in the mentality, for a little bit, that we’re world-beaters and unstoppable,” he said. “We let up a little bit. We lost our focus, and we got loose with the ball, and that’s what it was.”

Junior Tommy Ekart splashed a trey to end the quarter, however, giving MHS a 49-45 advantage entering the final period.

Manhattan bagged an 11-point separation midway through the fourth off consecutive baskets from Ekart and junior Trevor Hudgins. The Buffaloes rallied to pull within six, but Hudgins put the game out of reach over the final minute, knocking down 3-of-4 free throws.

The narrow win serves as a stark contrast from Manhattan’s 69-53 rout of Thomas More Prep-Marian Thursday night. George said he was glad to see difficulty for improvement purposes.

“We don’t necessarily want things to be easy, and they definitely weren’t,” George said. “Garden City’s a heck of a team, so I liked that we got some adversity. We talked about understanding how to win and finishing games. It was something we were really good at last year, and I think we’re going to have to learn how to do it this year.”

Some of said adversity came in the form of turnovers. The Indians coughed up the ball 17 times Friday night.

“I know we put up 66, 67 points, but I still feel like we turned the ball over way too much,” George said. “We were very careless with the basketball. It wasn’t any one guy; it was a lot of us. We just weren’t very fundamentally sound with the basketball in our hands at times.”

Five of the turnovers came in the second quarter, a period in which Garden City climbed to within three with two minutes left in the half.

The Indians responded, though, by connecting on 4-of-6 free throws. Senior Zach Francis drilled a three from the corner in the closing seconds of the half to send his team into the locker room with a 36-24 lead.

Much of the Buffaloes’ continued resurgence throughout the game came thanks to the long ball. Garden City threaded 10 total triples, including three from Jared Koster in the third frame. Senior Gabe Awbrey, who finished with 13 points, said the aerial attack took him by surprise a bit.

“We knew that [Koster] could shoot it well,” Awbrey said. “I don’t know if I thought they would shoot it that well, but we knew that they could shoot it going in.”

The Indians can vanquish images of Buffaloes knocking down threes now, however. Manhattan has earned a spot in the championship game.

MHS will take on the winner of Olathe North and Hays, two teams George doesn’t know a ton about. He explained that the lack of familiarity comes with tournaments by nature.

“We don’t know a ton about either team,” George said. “We know that Olathe North has some very good players. We don’t know much about Hays. That’s just the way a tournament is. You have to be ready to adjust on the fly.”

The Indians will take on either Olathe North or Hays Saturday at 7 p.m. at Hays High School to decide the winner of the 2015 Hays City Shoot-Out.