After losing to Andover in the semifinals, Salina South refocused and beat Clay Center 74,61.
"Anytime you're not in the championship game, you like to end the tournament with a win," Salina South coach Matt Renk said. "It was nice for our guys to battle through the disappointment of last nights game and come out and play well."
The game was back and forth in the first, the Cougars only leading by three in the half. Salina South outscored Clay center 26 to 20 in the third and were able to add to the lead in the final quarter.
"I think our guys kept going," Renk said. "We did a nice job on the defensive end and we executed on the offensive end and that was probably key for us to open up the stretch."
Justin Stonebreaker's 19 points helped get the Cougars a comfortable win. He forced defenders to foul him when driving to the bucket scoring 6 points off of free throws.
"Justin does a great job of attacking," Renk said. "He reads the defense. He does a very nice job of making decisions and that's why he gets the points he gets.
Three other Cougars were also had double figures in scoring Ryan Fox with 14, Conner Ryan with 11 and Nathan Kroeker with 10.
The Cougars also forced the Tigers to turn the ball over 18 times to their 11.
Senior Dalton Haist lead the Tigers in scoring with 25. Fellow senior Caleb Carson was also in double figures with 13.
In the girls third place match up Andover beat Abilene 62-37.
The Tigers were lead by Kaley Hallmark who had 28 points, 12 from behind the three point line. Her 28 points beat the SIT single game scoring record of 23 that was set in 2011.
Andover had a comfortable lead for most of the game, out scoring Abilene in every quarter.
Belle Barbieri led the Cowgirls with 15 points, followed by Nichole Taylor with 12.
In the seventh place match ups the Sacred Heard Girls beat Smoky Valley 35,31 and the Concordia boys beat Smoky Valley 54,38.
