Broncbusters avenge opening-night loss to McCook

Garden City, KS-Lesson learned.  

Antonio Chol had 19 points and nine rebounds, Caleb Smith chipped in 16, and Garden City avenged an opening-night loss to McCook with an 82-71 victory over the Indians Tuesday night at Conestoga Arena.  

Emmanuel Manyuon scored 14 and Josiah Sabino added 10 points and four assists in 21 minutes off the bench for the Broncbusters, which improved to 3-1 overall. Garden City shot 51 percent from the field and finished 14-of-27 (52 percent) from downtown.  

"This was definitely a get-back game," interim coach, Isaiah Tisdale said afterwards. "That was our motto the whole week."

Seven days earlier, Garden City went stone cold in the second half as McCook stormed back from an 11-point deficit to win. This time around, there was no such letdown.  

Although this was not an easy win by any stretch.  

The Broncbusters had a chance to blow the game open early. Smith and Chol hit back-to-back triples to start, Manyuon drilled a 3 from the wing, and Garden City had an 11-2 advantage five minutes in. At the same time, McCook missed 11 of their first 12 shots and turned the ball over five times in the first eight minutes.  

We shot it really well tonight," Tisdale explained. "I wish that we shot our free throws better, but overall, it was a solid performance." 

Jace Steinmetz's 3-pointer from the right corner, which dropped in after a friendly bounce, stretched Garden City's lead to 14-4. It was one of two times that the Broncbusters held a double-digit advantage in the first half. 

But the Indians closed the opening period strong. Norris Bourne Jr. who was eventually ejected from the game early in the second half after picking up a second technical foul, rattled home a 3-pointer from the top of the key, McCook canned four free throws in the final minute, and the Indians closed the period on a 15-9 run to pull within four at the break.  

"We always stress to our guys that we can't take any opponent lightly," Tisdale added. 

Chol's layup with less than nine minutes remaining gave Garden City a 62-53 edge.   

"He's (Chol) very unselfish," Tisdale said. "He will do whatever he has to do to win. I thought he had a bit of an off night, but he was still good." 

19 points on an efficient 5-of-10 shooting in 39 minutes is some off night. Still, to provide proper context, the transfer from Rutgers was averaging 27 entering Tuesday night's contest.  

"He (Chol) just picks his spots really well," Tisdale said. 

That was evident later in the second half when the sophomore whipped a pass to Manyuon on a secondary break and watched as the Cloud County transfer drained a trey from the right wing to put Garden City up, 67-60 with 5:54 to play.  

McCook, which never led in the game, pulled within one following a Sabino turnover that led to a Da'Shawn Hall-Johnson layup to make it 67-66 with 4:34 remaining. But Manyuon and Sabino hit back-to-back driving layups, Chol sank two free throws, and Sabino banked home a 3-pointer, helping ignite a 15-5 run to close the game.    

The Broncbusters won despite being outrebounded, 35-28 and turning the ball over 17 times. They were outscored, 48-20 in the paint. 

Hall-Johnson and Madison Peaster each scored 14 for McCook, which dropped to 3-2 overall. Nate Coley added 13 points, five rebounds, three assists, and three steals, and Bourne Jr. tallied 12 points and five boards.