Overtime unkind to Demon girls in opener

   Early-season butterflies gave way to some late-game gut wrenching for the Dodge City High School Red Demon girls basketball team in a 33-32 overtime loss to the Salina Central Mustangs.
    The Demons won't have any time to brood over the season-opening loss, either, as they have a quick turn-around before their game against the Manhattan Indians at 2 p.m. today in Manhattan.
    "The good thing about this loss is we get to play again in less than 18 hours," Demons coach Justin Briggs said after Friday's game.
    Neither team was able to generate a prolific offense, as Central shot only 28 percent from the field in the win and Dodge made 35 percent of its shot attempts. Demon senior Morgan Lampe led all scorers with 13 points.
    "You could call it early-season butterflies on both ends of the ball," Briggs added. "That first half was pretty much a stalemate."
    The game played more like a softball game than a basketball game during the first quarter, after which the Mustangs had an 8-6 lead. But an Emily Durler interior basket and a Sydney Matheny 3-pointer gave Dodge an 11-8 lead early in the second.
    The Demons were able to overcome some missed block-outs on the defensive end and took a 14-13 lead into the locker room at halftime.
    Dodge City played its best basketball right out of the intermission, as they outscored the Mustangs 10-2 in the third period. Lampe opened the quarter with two layups, one coming after a steal from the Mustang inbound pass and a coast-to-coast jaunt.
    Matheny's second 3-ball of the game with 5 minutes, 52 seconds left in the frame capped a 10-0 Dodge run that started back in the second quarter and gave the Demons a 21-13 lead. Dodge City's largest lead came at the end of the third quarter after a Lampe 8-footer inside that put the team up 24-15.
    "We switched from the 3-2 zone to a man defense out of halftime, and it seemed to cause them a little trouble," Briggs said. "We were able to get a few easy baskets off turnovers, but I think we got a little comfortable with the lead toward the end of the game."
    And it showed early in the fourth, as the Demons committed four turnovers in the first three and a half minutes of the quarter. Cerissa McMillan's driving bucket after a turnover from Dodge freshman Kesha Buckner capped an 8-0 Mustang run that left the Demons with a 24-23 lead with about four minutes to play.
    Two Emily Kinder free throws gave Central its first lead since the first quarter with 2:06 remaining in the game.
    "I don't know how many empty possessions we had there toward the end," Briggs said. "We just made some silly passes and some unforced turnovers."
    But the Demons stayed in the game despite the unforced errors. Foul-plagued junior Codi Erlich came up with a huge jumper with a minute remaining to get the Demons a 27-26 lead.
    Erlich fouled out and sent Central's Courtney McMillan to the line with 27 seconds left on the clock. McMillan made one of two free throws and sent the game into overtime.
    In the overtime period, the Demons' inability to hit clutch free throws came back to haunt them. Point guard Valerie Ortiz missed the front end of a one-and-one with under a minute remaining.
    With the game tied at 32, Ortiz was called for a foul as the Demons (0-1) pressured the ball with 3.9 ticks left. Central's Abby Morris hit one of two, and Dodge could not get off a shot on the ensuing possession.
    "They made one that counted, and we didn't," Briggs said of the free throws at the game's end. "That's kind of what this one came down to."
    The Demons will have to get back up for another test today in Manhattan, as Briggs said he expected to play a team as good as or better than the Mustangs.