The Lady Indians faced disappointment at the McPherson tournament, losing to Olathe South in the championship game, and losing an undefeated season, making them 10-1 overall, but still undefeated 8-0 in the Centennial League. They won the first day of the tournament playing Wichita Southeast with a final score of 83-37 and won the second day playing against Valley Center with a final score of 56-29.

“We knew it was going to be hard and we knew we were going to see some good teams and that we would have to be on our A game every game,” junior Chrissy Carr said.

The team worked on several things during practice in order to be prepared for the McPherson tournament. They worked on rebounding and making their outside shots specifically. During the first day of the tournament their offense was really good and they shot the ball well, but their defense gave up some penetrations. In the second game against Valley Center their defense was good, but their ball movement wasn’t as good as past games.

“Well we played a very good team, we just didn’t make enough plays on both ends,” head coach Scott Mall said. “We had some good things we just needed to make some adjustments, and they were the first team that was taller than us.”

They lost the Championship game with a final score of 50-38. Despite the loss, the MHS girls are still ranked the number one Class 6A team in the state, fourth in the state overall, and ranked 599 in the nation out of more than 4,500 teams..

“I think we were upset,” senior Gigi McAtee said. “It was a goal of ours so going out there and not winning that was disappointing, but it was nice to see them play before the state tournament, so we’re just going to take that loss and get better from it and learn from it.”

The overall reaction from the team was that this would be a learning experience for them, and it will show them what to work on for the rest of the season. This learning experience will also show the team what they need to work on in preparation for when they see Olathe South again in the state tournament. Olathe is currently ranked second in the state for 6A schools behind MHS, and ranked eighth in the state overall, four places behind Manhattan.

“We have tons of teams goal, the mains ones are winning league title and staying undefeated in league, obviously the overall goal is to win state,” McAtee said. “Looking forward, we really need to work on playing team offense and rebounding, and i think if we focus on that it will really improve our game overall.”

The Lady Indian’s next game is this Friday against Hayden who is currently ranked 20th in the state for 4A schools and 233 in the state overall.