Article About Boys Silver Lake BB Game

From the Capital Journal:
Silver Lake 66, Rossville 48
After pulling out a pair of single-digit victories over archrival Rossville during the regular season, the last thing Silver Lake coach Linndy Frieden expected in Saturday night’s Class 3A sub-state championship game rematch was a blowout.

So when the Bulldawgs came out with a spirited first five minutes and led Silver Lake 10-8, it wasn’t much of a shock.

The rest of the game, however, was a pleasant surprise for Frieden and the Eagles. After the early deficit, Silver Lake took control and ran away for a 66-48 victory to punch its ticket to next week’s state tournament in Hutchinson.

“I think you have to give the Rossville kids a lot of credit because they went through some adversity last weekend and played well this week,” Frieden said. “It helped us because we knew them beating St. Marys was a wake-up call and we gave them plenty of respect. … I didn’t think we’d be subbing with two minutes to go up 20.”

Frieden and the Eagles found themselves in that position in large part because of how they started the second half. After seeing Rossville shave a 14-point second-quarter lead to eight by halftime, 29-21, Silver Lake came out in the third quarter firing on all cylinders.

In particular, Mason Griffin was unstoppable. After getting hit with a technical late in the first half to help key Rossville’s closing run, the sophomore more than atoned, scoring six straight points to start the period and had 20 of his game-high 25 points in the second half.

His early burst helped Silver Lake push the lead back to double digits and after Rossville closed back within six, Cale Adams scored seven points in an 11-1 run that put Silver Lake up 16.

Adams finished with 19 points.

“Cale is probably the most under-appreciated guy on our team,” Frieden said. “He does all the dirty work and is a great leaper, great athlete and usually guards their best player. Cale gave us great energy tonight.”

Minus three starters removed from the team at the start of the week, Rossville simply couldn’t maintain its emotional run to get to the championship game. Trey Anderson scored 14 to lead the Bulldawgs (12-11) and Sheldon Hulbert added 11.