HUTCHINSON – Kate Boss’ investment in Osage City goes far beyond just being the head coach for the girls’ basketball program.
 
It’s the school where she was a multi-sport star during her prep days, as was her husband, Lucas. It’s where their children have been and still are performing at the highest level.
 
So getting her Indian team to the state championship basketball game for the first time in program history strikes an awfully deep chord. And the manner in which Osage City’s historic moment transpired made the moment even more special.
 
In Friday’s Class 3A state semifinal game at the Hutchinson Sports Arena, the Indians had the task of trying to knock off a Halstead team that not only was undefeated this season but also the tourney’s defending champion with the Dragons having captured their first-ever state title a year ago.
 
But the Indians were up to the challenge. After trailing for the entirety of the final three quarters, Osage City forced overtime with a last-second shot by senior Jewelia Kitselman and then seized control of the game in the extra period to upset Halstead 44-39. 
 
“It’s honestly is a dream come true,” said Boss, who never got the chance to play at a state tournament during her stellar four-year career for the Indians. “Being an Osage City alum and just loving this town and community, it’s a dream to get there.”
 

 
The challenge awaiting Osage City (25-3) in Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. championship game is just as great, if not greater, than its semifinal one. While Silver Lake (27-1) is neither the defending champion nor undefeated, the Eagles have been arguably Class 3A’s top program over the past five years.
 
Saturday’s title game will be the Eagles’ third straight appearance with Silver Lake winning it all in 2024 and taking second to Halstead a year ago.
 
Regardless, Boss said the Indians have more history to make.
 
“We are not finished,” she said. “We can’t be content being in the championship game. We have to come out and be ready to go.”
 
Coming off Thursday night’s wild finish in the last semifinal of the evening when Burlington took out defending boys’ 3A champion Hesston on a buzzer-beater in triple-overtime, Osage City continued the madness in Friday’s first semifinal.
 
Trailing Halstead 25-20 at the start of the fourth quarter, the Indians were able to take advantage of a fatigued Dragon team that has battled sickness across the roster. Trying to save his team’s energy a bit in the final quarter, Dragon coach Derek Schutte had his team try to work time off the clock on its offensive possessions, shortening the game.
 
While Halstead was able to accomplish that, running a minute and a half off the clock on its first possession – one the Dragons finished with a 3-pointer by Addison Wills to extend their lead to eight – it eventually became opportunity for Osage City to get back in the game.
 
“It’s not an excuse, but we’ve had the flu go through our team this week and we haven’t been able to play like we like to play,” Schutte said. “We had to hold it out and delay because we were just trying to survive. And in the second half, we were running out of gas.”
 
After Wills’ 3-pointer, the Dragons’ shooting tank was on empty as they didn’t have a field goal attempt for the rest of regulation. Their only scoring opportunities came at the free throw line and when they only hit 4 of 8, Osage City took advantage.
 
Kaelyn Boss, Kate’s daughter, hits. 3-pointer with 4:50 left that pulled the Indians within four and following a Halstead turnover, freshman Sawyer Serna scored inside to make it a two-point game. Kitselman offset a Halstead free throw with two of her own that cut the deficit to one and after another 1 of 2 showing at the free throw line by the Dragons, Serna again scored in the paint to tie the game with 2:11 left.
 
Piper Schroeder hit 1 of 2 free throws with 29 seconds left to put Halstead back up one and after Boss missed an off-balance guarded shot in the lane, Wills was fouled with 11 seconds left and had a chance to put the Dragons up three.
 
But she made just 1 of 2 and after an Indian timeout with seven seconds left, Osage City got its heroics from Kitselman.
 
“We were trying to set a screen to get Kaelyn the ball so she could attack and then have three options – Jewelia on the backside, Sawyer on the baseline and a kickout to Emory (Speece) to step into a 3-point shot because can step into it, it’s going in.”
 
Option A turned out to be the one that unfolded as Boss drove, drawing two Dragon defenders, leaving Kitselman open. She got the pass and banked in a short shot at the buzzer, in the process drawing a foul.
 
“I had so much adrenaline, and literally talking anything about this game now gives me goosebumps from just how exciting it was,” Kitselman said. “In the moment, it just seemed so crazy.”
 

 
With a chance to win the game with her foul shot, Kitselman said that adrenaline was too much and she missed it long, sending the game to overtime. On the opening possession of the extra period, Kitselman rebounded her own 3-point miss and scored on a putback basket that gave Osage City its first lead since an 11-8 lead late in the first quarter.
 
The Indians never trailed nor were tied the rest of the way. After a Jordy Schroeder free throw, Boss sank two for Osage City and then Speece and Serna each made 1 of 2 and Kitselman made a pair to give the Indians a 40-34 lead.
 
Halstead had some final life as Wills scored on a layup and then hit a 3-pointer, her buckets sandwiching two Boss free throws, to make it 42-39. But Boss sank two more charities with 5 seconds left to seal the win.
 
“They are very much a relentless crew, they don’t stop,” Kate Boss said. “They’re aggressive and they wanted it. We haven’t been behind a lot, but they still just have that no-quit attitude. They’re not comfortable being behind and don’t like that feeling inside and find ways to fight through and we just kept coming.
 
“Once we got that lead in overtime, that confidence kicked in and if we could just keep that lead, it was a big deal.”
 
Boss finished with 12 points and 9 rebounds to lead the Indians. Serna was huge off the bench, scoring 11 and playing big minutes after fellow freshman standout Jayla Jenkins fouled out midway through the fourth quarter.
 
Halstead put three in double-figure scoring with Wills leading the way with 12 and Jordy Schroeder and Bailey Bernal each adding 11. The Dragons saw a 38-game winning streak come to an end.
 
“They’re good, really talented and have some girls that can really score it,” Schutte said of Osage. “They made the plays down the stretch that we weren’t able to make.”
 

 
SILVER LAKE 50, HOLCOMB 36
 
Holcomb got off to exactly the kind of start an underdog needs in a game where the stakes are highest.
 
Taking on a Silver Lake team making its fifth state appearance in the Class 3A state semifinals, the Longhorns – semifinalists for the first time in program history – jumped all over the Eagles from the opening tip.
 
Delilah Galliart and Jaylee Wickwar scored inside and Isabella Galliart knocked down a 3-pointer. On the flip side, the Eagles missed their first three shots, two from long range. A 7-0 start quickly became a 10-2 lead less than four minutes into the game.
 
“Credit to Holcomb, they came out ready to go, prepared,” Silver Lake coach Kyle Porter said. “We wanted to throw the first punch. And I think obviously they did.”
 
But Silver Lake has been in enough big-time bouts to know how to not only take a punch but throw a haymaker of a counterpunch. After absorbing Holcomb’s opening salvo, the Eagles delivered an early knockout.

Down 16-14 with 1:23 left in the first quarter, Silver Lake got a pair of 3-pointers from Savanah Wende and then a buzzer-beating three from Karys Deiter to finish the quarter on a 10-0 run. The Eagles then scored the first six points of the second quarter with Wende’s third 3-pointer of the half helping stake Silver Lake to a 30-16 lead.
 

 
Silver Lake maintained a double-digit lead for the rest of the game and while the offense didn’t come as easily as it did during their 24-point first quarter, the Eagles never felt any heat over the final three quarters.
 
“I’m really pleased with how our team responded,” Porter said. “When we went on a 16-0 run, a lot of that was fueled by our ball pressure. That’s something that we have to maintain and utilize. We did it a little bit in the first quarter, but we didn’t impose our will like we like to.
 
“I was really happy with the way we were able to get them sped up and play faster than they want to play. And then we finished in transition and it’s always a little easier when the ball goes in.”
 
It didn’t fall as much as Porter would have liked as he bemoaned Silver Lake’s final shooting totals, a cool 16-of-51 from the field and just 4 of 18 from 3-point range. But he enjoyed seeing a different stat in the postgame boxscore, the 22 turnovers the Eagles forced Holcomb into which led to 17 fewer shot attempts than the Eagles had.
 
Silver Lake also dominated the offensive glass, getting 19 offensive rebounds, just six fewer than Holcomb’s total rebound number.
 
Though Deiter and Wende combined to make only one other 3-pointer over the final three quarters, their late first-quarter flurry proved key to Silver Lake settling in. Deiter finished with 13 points and Wende had 11.
 
Kailyn Hanni led the Eagles with 17 points and also added 11 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals.
 
Delilah Galliart was the only Longhorn in double figures with 14. After hitting 6 of 14 shots in the first quarter, Holcomb made just 4 of 15 over the next two quarters and also turned it over 13 times in those two periods.
 
State runner-up to Halstead a year ago, Silver Lake won’t get a shot at revenge in this year’s title game after the Dragons were upset in overtime by Osage City in the day’s first semifinal. But Porter knows the challenge won’t be any easier.
 
“Osage City’s a very good basketball team and they play really well together,” Porter said. “They did what they needed to do to get to this point, which is tough considering what Halstead’s done. We’re going to be prepared and we’re excited about the opportunity to compete against Osage and we’ll see what happens.”
 
CLASS 3A GIRLS SEMIFINALS
 
OSAGE CITY 44, HALSTEAD 39 OT
 
Osage City … 5 … 8 … 7 … 12 … 12 … -- … 44
Halstead … 8 … 10 … 7 … 7 … 7 … -- … 39
 
Osage City (25-3) – Speece 2-7 1-2 5, Pitts 1-5 0-0 3, Kitselman 2-9 4-5 8, Boss 2-8 7-8 12, Jenkins 1-5 2-8 5, Serna 5-7 1-2 11, Watson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-41 15-25 44.
 
Halstead (26-1) – Wills 4-11 1-2 12, J. Schroeder 4-7 2-6 11, P. Schroeder 1-3 2-6 5, Nedich 0-6 0-0 0, Bernal 3-6 3-4 11, Rump 0-0 0-0 0, T. Williams 0-1 0-0 0, Farmer 0-0 0-0 0, A. Williams 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 12-34 8-16 39.
 
3-point goals – Osage CIty 3-14 (Pitts 1-5, Boss 1-3, Jenkins 1-1, Speece 0-2, Kitselman 0-3); Halstead 7-17 (Wills 3-5, J. Schroeder 1-3, P. Schroeder 1-2, Bernal 2-2, Nedich 0-4, T. Williams 0-1). Rebounds – Osage City 32 (Boss 9); Halstead 27 (P. Schroeder 9). Assists – Osage City 9 (Kitselman 3); Halstead 7 (Nedich 3). Turnovers – Osage City 12, Halstead 15. Total fouls – Osage City 19, Halstead 20. Fouled out – Osage City: Jenkins; Halstead: P. Schroeder.
 
SILVER LAKE 50, HOLCOMB 36
 
Holcomb … 16 … 5 … 4 … 11 … -- … 36
Silver Lake … 24 … 10 … 9 … 7 … -- … 50
 
Holcomb (25-3) – D. Galliart 5-13 4-5 14, Wickwar 2-5 0-0 4, I. Galliart 3-4 0-0 8, Hill 0-1 1-2 1, Ruda 2-4 2-4 6, Cranston 0-5 0-0 0, Ardery 0-0 0-0 0, Baier 1-2 1-1 3, Donovan 0-0 0-0 0, Cervantes 0-0 0-0 0, Salas 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-34 8-12 36.
 
Silver Lake (27-1) – Ka. Hanni 5-11 7-10 17, Whitehead 1-7 0-0 2, Heiman 2-4 3-3 7, Deiter 5-12 1-2 13, Wende 3-13 3-4 11, Ky. Hanni 0-1 0-0 0, May 0-2 0-0 0, Thompson 0-0 0-0 0, Day 0-1 0-0 0, Cl. Erb 0-0 0-0 0, Gerber 0-0 0-0 0, Ca. Erb 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-51 14-19 50.
 
3-point goals – Holcomb 2-6 (I. Galliart 2-2, Wickwar 0-2, D. Galliart, Baier 0-1); Silver Lake 4-18 (Deiter 2-4, Wende 2-11, Whitehead 0-1, Ky. Hanni 0-1, May 0-1). Rebounds – Holcomb 25 (D. Galliart 8); Silver Lake 30 (Ka. Hanni 11). Assists – Holcomb 6 (Hill 2); Silver Lake 9 (Ka. Hanni 5). Turnovers – Holcomb 22, Silver Lake 12. Total fouls -- Holcomb 19, Silver Lake 13. Fouled out – Holcomb: Ruda.