Lansing Routs Redskins at State

The top seeded Lansing Lions of former LHS head coach Rod Briggs played like the top seed Wednesday afternoon in the 5A state basketball tourament at the Topeka Expocentre. The 20-3 Lions beat Liberal 66-34.

The Redskins finish 10-13 after qualifying to state for the third time in five years.

The Skins struggled and the Lions looked mighty Wednesday. Liberal shot just 24 percent from the field making 12 of 50 shots. Liberal also committed 19 turnovers.

Lansing looked like a team who played three games in the Expocentre last year when they were 18-6. The Redskins looked like a team who had never experienced state.

Lansing led 18-9 after one quarter and 36-20 at halftime. The Redskins used a 7-0 run to cut Lansing’s lead to 13 (40-27) briefly in the third quarter but didn’t make another whimper the rest of the game.

Briggs, who coached Liberal from 2003-2006 and led the 2004 Redskins to state, is 93-41 at Lansing. His former LHS assistant Drew Gruver has led Liberal to state in three of his five seasons as head coach.