Four good teams resulted in two great basketball games on Friday night as the Mid-East and Big 7 collided.  Both games were tightly contested throughout with the Sabetha girls and Silver Lake boys coming out on top.  

GIRLS = Sabetha 34, Silver Lake 32

Despite not playing for a week and not even having practice in eight days, the Sabetha girls started where they left on winning the Burlington Invitational and jumped to a 14-3 lead in the first quarter against Silver Lake.  It turned out to be the only quarter that Sabetha outscored the visiting Eagles, but the Jays led the entire game until the 2:06 mark in the fourth quarter when Lake went ahead 30-29 on four straight points by Daryn Lamprecht.  Saige Steele also came to life for Silver Lake with a trey and a free throw to give the Eagles a 32-31 lead with 30 seconds remaining.  

Sabetha leading scorer Hillary Krebs had been plagued by foul trouble and not scored since making an early three-pointer to start the game.  Yet, with just 15 seconds to play, she burried another triple which gave Sabetha the 34-32 win after a missed potential tying shot by Silver Lake.  It was the fifth straight win for the Bluejays, who are now 10-3 and a mere 11 total points away from being undefeated.  Melinna Schumann had nine points while Skylar McAfee added seven and Krebs and Jessica Payne each chipped in six.  Sabetha was only 7 of 21 from the foul line, but Silver Lake wasn't much better going 6 of 16.  

BOYS = Silver Lake 49, Sabetha 45

The game was within six points from start to finish, with Silver Lake taking their first lead of the night at 23-21 midway through the second stanza.  King of Courts senior, Jesse Burger hit a three-pointer at the end of the third quarter to put Sabetha back ahead 39-38, but the Jays would make only two field goals the entire fourth quarter.  The other problem for Sabetha was rebounding, which proved costly down the stretch as they trailed 47-45 and turned the ball over, then committed a foul and despite getting misses and having three more players on the lane, Silver Lake's Kyler Kaniper got his own rebound and hit the next two free throws for the final points of the game.

Dillon Bryne conitnued his tremendous season with 17 of his 24 points in the first half while nobody else had more than seven for the Eagles.  Sabetha has now lost three in a row and four of five after starting the season 8-0.  The Bluejays (9-4) got 15 points from Braeden Cox and Gabe Garber scored eight of his 12 in the opening quarter.