Winning for the most part is not an easy task to accomplish, unless your part of the Manhattan High Lady Indians; in that case, it looks pretty easy to do. The girls Varsity basketball team came out on Friday night with an astounding amount of energy, which would eventually lead them to a blowout victory against Dodge City giving them a 3-1 record.

“I would say that we played well,” junior Kia Wilson said. “I mean we never play perfect, but I thought we played a lot better as a team. I thought that’s what we worked on a lot in practice, making the extra pass, trying to make your team better, and unselfish play. I think we did a lot better at all that today.”

The team immediately showed that Dodge City was unable of playing at the same intensity as the Lady Indians by owning the first quarter and ending it with a score of 22-4. Coming out strong in the first quarter has become a pattern for MHS and often is an important factor in what allows them to be so successful. In every game that they have won so far, they have at least doubled the score of their opponent at the end of the first quarter.

“I think [a great start] is always important,” head coach Scott Mall said. “It pays off it lets you do some different things, like last year at our state game, we got off to a great start and it made things go a lot smoother.”

The lack of scoring from Dodge City in the first quarter is thanks to an aggressive full court press defense that MHS played. This allowed the team to get a significant lead and some noteworthy play. A deflection from junior Chrissy Carr and a spin move from junior Haleigh Harper which would later add two points on the board for the Lady Indians.

“The pressure that we apply really helps us get out and get steals,” Carr said. “It helps us get some easy scores quick and fast. at the beginning of the game we started out with a couple steals and garrin had a couple good steals and baskets which really helped us. When we get steals we can throw it up and get layups and those are uncontested shots that are just two quick points that we can use. I think that our defense does a good job and whenever we move back to half court we do a good job of staying aggressive.”

As the game went on, Dodge City began to pick up  the pace and close the gap by scoring 12 points and allowing MHS to score 13 in the third quarter. Despite Dodge City picking it up a little, it was not enough to gain the lead partly due to the fact that MHS didn’t slow down.

“I think we did a good job of moving the ball and staying aggressive despite being up.” Carr said. “We did a good job matching their intensity and even though we were up by a lot we kept punching and pushing and that kind of playing style will be good for when we play better teams and we get down we will have that motivation.”

The team finished strong in the fourth quarter by scoring 11 points and only allowing three from Dodge City. Their next game will be away against Junction City on Friday.