THS girls fall to Silver Lake in third-place game
TOURNEY RESULTS

Justin Nutter
Jenny Whitledge brings the ball up the court in Tonganoxie's 53-47 loss to Silver Lake.
Seventh-place game
Atchison 47, Lansing 43
Fifth-place game
Eudora 31, Bishop Seabury 26
Third-place game
Silver Lake 53, Tonganoxie 47
Championship game
Chanute 39, De Soto 32
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Allie Webb, Eudora
Taylor White, Silver Lake
Mackenzie Freeman, Silver Lake
Ashlyn Lane, Silver Lake
Katelyn Waldeier, Tonganoxie
Jenny Whitledge, Tonganoxie
Shelby Trout, Chanute
Macy Flowers, Chanute
Paige Williams, De Soto
Megan Bonar, De Soto
Most Inspirational Player
Shelby Deghand, De Soto
Most Valuable Player
Brenna Olson, Chanute
For the second time in as many days, missed opportunities led to disappointment for the Tonganoxie High girls.
The Chieftains led Silver Lake by four points at halftime, but an offensive lull in the third quarter allowed the Eagles to come back for a 53-47 win in the third-place game at the Tonganoxie Invitational.
Looking to rebound from Friday’s last-second loss to Chanute, THS (8-3) jumped out to a 13-2 lead in the first quarter. However, the Eagles (9-2) found their footing and slowly chipped away at the the deficit. They closed the gap to four at the break, 29-25, and took their first lead midway through the third quarter.
Tonganoxie struggled to score in the period, as many of its shot attempts bounced off the front of the rim.
“We hit a point where we kind of fell in love with the outside shot,” coach Randy Kraft said. “Our legs were getting a little tired. Everything we shot was dead on and short. That’s when we’ve got to attack the basket more, and we didn’t do that until late in the fourth.”
SLHS entered the fourth quarter with a 39-35 advantage, and the Chieftains never regained the lead.
Ashlyn Lane led Silver Lake with 21 points and Mackenzie Freeman added 10. Lane put the game away from the free throw line, sinking eight straight in the final minutes.
“They have a couple really good players,” Kraft said of the Eagles. “You have to guard Freeman and we knew (Lane) was good, but they’ve got other kids that can play their role. The whole team is probably the most athletic in this tournament.”
Katelyn Waldeier led THS with 14 points, while Jenny Whitledge scored 11 and pulled down 11 rebounds for a double-double. Both were named to the girls all-tournament team.
The back-to-back losses to close out tournament play are the first consecutive defeats this season for Kraft’s squad, which is just 2-3 in its last five games.
“When you go 1-2 in your tournament, that’s disappointing,” Kraft said. “I really felt like we only played one really good game, and that was (Saturday). Even though we had a bad scoring third quarter, we didn’t play bad. The other two games we played were subpar for us.”
THS will have nearly a week off before it returns to the court Friday at Atchison.
Score by quarter
Silver Lake 11 14 14 14 — 53
Tonganoxie 19 10 6 12 — 47
Individual scoring
SILVER LAKE — Ashlyn Lane 6-10 8-10 21, Mackenzie Freeman 3-10 2-2 10, Madison Wegner 3-8 0-0 7, Katlyn Kirkwood 2-2 1-1 5, Taylor White 2-6 0-0 4, Alexis Campbell 1-1 0-2 2, Jordan Yoder 1-2 0-0 2, Logan Bledsoe 1-5 0-0 2.
TONGANOXIE — Katelyn Waldeier 7-14 0-2 14, Jenny Whitledge 5-11 1-3 11, Hannah Kemp 4-7 0-0 8, Madee Walker 3-7 0-0 8, Sarah Ahart 1-1 0-0 2, Kara Banks 1-3 0-0 2, Emily Soetaert 1-6 0-0 2.
- Jenny Whitledge brings the ball up the court in Tonganoxie’s 53-47 loss to Silver Lake.