Manhattan - Thursday, March 9th  Girls State 2A Quarterfinal

The historic season will continue for two more days for the Riverside girls basketball team who put together an 18-3 fourth quarter to pull away for a 49-30 win against Wichita Independent.

In their first trip to state hoops in school history, the Lady Cyclones shot just 20 percent in the first half and trailed by as many as seven points with only one brief lead of one point late in the first quarter. But they still managed to tie the score at 17 at halftime before taking the lead for good early in the third period. 

Riverside shot 48 percent in the second half and made 14 of 20 free throws while Indpendent was just 2 of 5 at the charity stripe and had 20 turnovers. The Cyclone defense was phenominal all game long while their five starters (four juniors and a freshman) combined for all but two total points. 

Taylor Weishaar came to life in the second half with 18 of her 25 points while also connecting on 8 of 10 foul shots. Abby O'Grady hit two of the three Cyclone triples and scored 8 points while Halle Studer had 6, Sophie Juhl 5, Niahla Duncan 4 and Caidence Brune 2.

Despite the Panthers having a six-foot and another six-foot 3 inch post, Riverside got 24 points in the paint and only turned the ball over 10 times while improving to 21-3. 

Riverside will play undefeated and top seed Pittsburg Colgan in a 4 PM semifinal on Friday at Bramlage Coliseum with live coverage on KNZA 103.9 FM. Berean Academy and Hillsboro are the other two girls 2A semifinalist while Wichita Independent ended their season at 19-5.