Following its second loss of the season to Emporia Jan. 22, the Manhattan High girls basketball team got nearly a week to rest before the Mid-America Classic in McPherson last Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The Lady Indians took fourth at the tournament, with a quarterfinal win over Andale, semifinal loss to Olathe East and third-place game loss to host McPherson.

The 2-1 outing puts MHS at 9-4 for the season.

“I think we played really well overall. I think we struggled to put a whole game together,” junior Gigi McAtee said. “Obviously we don’t have very much experience, and I think that ended up hurting in those close games.”

Manhattan’s 44-30 win over Andale Thursday was one. A slow-moving, defensive affair characterized the contest for the first quarter, but MHS got separation in the second quarter, good enough for a 10-point lead at halftime, and rode the lead into the final stanza for the win.

The victory set up a semifinal meeting with Olathe East. And it didn’t take long for East to jump on Manhattan. The Lady Hawks outscored the Lady Indians 19-4 in the second frame, and the large lead culminated in a 50-33 final score and proved insurmountable for MHS.

“The offense [went wrong],” McAtee said. “When we’re not hitting shots, instead of moving more like we should, we kind of freeze and look to everyone else, and I think that comes with the experience we have.”

The loss put Manhattan in a matchup with host team McPherson in the third-place game on Saturday, but things didn’t swing in the Lady Indians’ favor — at least not in the fourth quarter.

That’s when the McPherson built a cushion after a tightly-contested game for the first three quarters and edged Manhattan, 55-48.

MHS now looks ahead to Friday’s road matchup with Topeka West.