The Manhattan High girls’ road 62-55 win over Shawnee Heights Tuesday night was perhaps more about the Lady Thunderbirds than the Lady Indians.

Coming into the contest that had enormous league standing implications, two players occupied the mind of Scott Mall and his team.

They were named Jazz Sweet and Blaize Burgess, two standouts not only on Heights’ team but as well in the entire Centennial League. And by the amount of points they combined for against Manhattan Tuesday night — that is, 40 — one might expect a win for Shawnee Heights.

But the opposite proved true: the Lady Indians contained the duo well enough for a 62-55 win, moving Manhattan to 11-4 overall and into a four-way tie for second in the league.

Responsible for defending Sweet, a 6-2 junior, were junior Kennedy Wilson and her sister, freshman Kia Wilson. And while Sweet managed 23 points and 10 rebounds, 11 of the points arrived at the free throw line, and Mall was pleased with his team’s effort guarding the versatile forward.

“Kennedy and Kia, we really, really talked to them about positioning, where we wanted to play her,” Mall said. “And it’s hard…. But I thought they did an outstanding job of trying to get where we wanted to get on her inside, and we got good help.”

Manhattan’s tactics for defending Burgess, a 5-3 guard, on the other hand, strayed from those against Sweet. The Lady Indians’ full-court press forced Heights into 17 total turnovers, but the same press forced a variety of Mall’s players onto Burgess.

She posted 17 points, but in similar fashion to her frontcourt comrade, Burgess tallied seven at the free throw line — including six late in the fourth to prolong the game — and Mall was again content with what he saw from his defense.

“I thought we did a good job,” he said. “She got some drives and stuff, but if she doesn’t hit the threes late, I think we did a super job against her.”

After Manhattan took a 16-13 lead after the first frame, the pair did their biggest damage in the second quarter, when they combined for 13 points — the only Shawnee Heights points of the stanza — and gashed MHS for several offensive rebounds and putbacks. But freshman Garrin Williams’ and-one to close out the half allowed for her team’s 26-23 lead at the break.

The third quarter was when the Lady Indians took control of the game for good. In addition, it was fittingly when they neutralized Sweet and Burgess the most.

After Sweet connected on a pair of free throws, Manhattan’s Madison Mitie and Gigi McAtee tallied eight unanswered points, and the Sweet-Burgess tandem was left with a fourth quarter they could not do much with.

Because MHS made the final eight minutes, in effect, a free throw shooting contest. Thanks to foul trouble, the Lady Indians hit 14-of-20 free throws — eight of which came off the hands of Mittie, who logged a game-high 26 points — to seal a win over the previously-first-place in the league Shawnee Heights.

With the win under their belt, the Lady Indians now turn their attention to Friday’s home meeting with Washburn Rural, another team jampacked into the four-way tie for second place. A loss in any of Manhattan’s final five regular season games likely knocks it out of contention for the league title.

That said, MHS’ Friday clash with the Lady Blues already rings out critical overtones.

“You look at our schedule, boy, every game is really, really important,” Mall said. “We know Washburn Rural is awfully good… We’re going to have to come out and play sharp every night these last five nights, because there’s no easy games left.”