BUFFS ROUNDUP: Monday, Dec. 9, 2019
BASKETBALL/GIRLS AND BOYS
After three full weeks of preseason practices, the Garden City High School girls and boys basketball teams will not only open their season this week on Tuesday at Guymon, Okla., but will then play three consecutive home games, Thursday through Saturday, in the annual Roundball Classic at The Garden.
It will be a quick turnaround for the Buffaloes’ squads, with the Guymon game slated to be on the road, and that leaves them just Wednesday to prepare for the back-to-back-to-back tripleheader of games in the Classic.
The Buffs will first host Palmer Ridge and Coronado, Colo. teams on Thursday and Friday at The Garden, with the girls tipping off at 6 p.m. and the boys to follow at approximately 8 o’clock. As part of the Classic, Holcomb and Scott City also will host games on their home floors the same two nights with Wichita Trinity rounding out the three “visiting” teams in this year’s event.
Holcomb will host Trinity on Thursday and Palmer Ridge on Friday while Scott City will play host to Coronado on Thursday and Trinity on Friday.
On Saturday, all games will be played in The Garden, with the Buffaloes taking on nearby Scott City in the girls game (4:15 p.m.) with the boys tipping off at approximately 7:45 p.m. In between, in the 6 p.m. matchup, it will be Holcomb’s boys taking on Coronado. Early games Saturday include 11 a.m. – Trinity vs. Palmer Ridge girls; 12:45 p.m. – Trinity vs. Palmer Ridge boys; 2:30 p.m. – Holcomb vs. Coronado girls.
Both the Buffs’ teams are coming off improved seasons of 2018-19 as the Lady Buffs posted a 12-10 mark under third-year coach Matt Pfeifer. The boys, meanwhile, had the fifth best record in school history, going 17-5 while winning the Western Athletic Conference title with a 7-1 mark. The Buffs, under then ninth-year head coach Jacy Holloway, reached the 6A sub-state finals before falling in a tough road loss at Lawrence High.
Now the teams will regroup, and in some cases reload as is the case with the boys.
Pfeifer has indicated that his probable starting lineup will include guards Felicity Rodriguez and Amaya Gallegos with frontline players Julie Calzonetti, Keyhana Turner and Symone Simmons rounding out the starting five. The girls game is slated to tipoff at 6 p.m. in Guymon.
The boys, however, will not only have to replace three graduated starters, but also will be without point guard Carlos Acosta who is out for the season with a knee injury suffered in football. That leaves Azavier Williams as the lone returning starter.
Holloway has indicated that his probable starting lineup would include Williams (6-0, Sr.), Isaiah Reyes (5-8, Jr.), Tae Rosales (5-11, So.), and Aaron Guevara (6-1, So.).
The Buffs will close out their pre-Christmas holiday schedule with a Dec. 20 road trip to Bear Creek, Colo., before coming back in the new year to begin with non-conference Junction City (Jan. 3) and then open Western Athletic Conference play on Jan. 10 with Great Bend, as both games are at home.
Garden City High School 