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No. 1-ranked Ichabods improve to 15-0 with 87-75 road win at Missouri Western
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
No. 1-ranked Washburn University men's basketball remained perfect on the season Wednesday night with an 87–75 road win at Missouri Western, improving to 15-0 overall and 5-0 in the MIAA.
Senior Sam Ungashick came off the bench to score 18 points in Wednesday's 87-75 MIAA road win over Missouri Western. [File photo/TSN]
The Ichabods never trailed, building a commanding 48-29 first-half lead, and then withstood a second-half push by the Griffons to secure the victory.
Washburn shot a scorching 65.5 percent from the floor in the opening half (19 of 29) and knocked down 4 of 9 attempts from 3-point range while scoring 48 first-half points.
Missouri Western, meanwhile, struggled to find rhythm early, shooting just 25.0 percent (8 of 32) in the first half.
Missouri Western (11-5 overall, 3-2 MIAA) played its best basketball after halftime, shooting 53.3 percent in the second half and outscoring Washburn 46-39 over the final 20 minutes while dropping to 6-1 in home games this season.
The Griffons trimmed the Ichabod advantage into the mid-teens on multiple occasions.
However, each time the Griffons threatened, Washburn answered, keeping Western at arm's length.
Sophomore Dillon Claussen scored 16 of his 18 points in the first half, going 6 of 10 from the field for the game while adding eight rebounds, four assists and three blocks.
Senior Sam Ungashick provided a big lift off the bench with a season-high 18 points on 7 of 10 shooting and junior Jack Bachelor added 16 points while senior Brady Christiansen contributed 13 points and nine rebounds, helping Washburn win the rebounding battle, 42–24.
As a team, Washburn finished the night shooting 56.4 percent from the field (31 of 55), 33.3 percent from 3-point range (7 of 21) and 72.0 percent at the free-throw line (18 of 25). Missouri Western shot 38.7 percent overall and just 21.4 percent from beyond the arc.
Washburn returns to the road on Saturday, continuing its four-game road trip at Northwest Missouri (3:30 p.m. start).
Wednesday's win was the fifth in a row by the Ichabods over the Griffons while improving to 8-2 in the last 10 meetings.
Griffons snap Washburn women's four-game win streak, 75-67
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
After a blistering start Wednesday night Washburn saw its four-game winning streak snapped, with the Ichabods falling 75-67 at Missouri Western.
Yibari Nwidadah scored 23 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in Wednesday's 75-67 MIAA road loss at Missouri Western. [File photo/TSN]
The Ichabods return to action on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. facing Northwest Missouri in Maryville, Mo.
The game opened quickly for Washburn (10-4 overall, 3-2 MIAA) with a 7-2 run in the first 72 seconds after senior Payton Sterk hit a jumper.
The Griffons (5-9, 1-4) battled back and would go in front 9-7 before extending the lead to eight points after a 9-0 run.
The Ichabods answered with a run of their own in a high-scoring first quarter as sophomore Brooke Gomez and senior Aniah Wayne both knocked down 3-pointers before going in front on a 3-pointer by senior Gabi Giovannetti. Shooting 52.6 percent from the floor and 4-7 from deep the Ichabods led 28-26 after the first quarter.
After scores from Sterk and senior Yibari Nwidadah to open the second quarter Washburn remained in front by two, but the next 10 points came from Missouri Western to go in front by eight.
The Ichabods went into the break trailing by six at 44-38 after Nwidadah scored the final six points of the half for Washburn in a quarter that saw them shoot 2-10 from the field.
The Griffon offense stayed hot out of halftime, pushing the lead into double figures and up to as high as 15 points at 55-40 at the 6:02 mark.
Washburn worked to chip away at the lead, with Nwidadah getting it into single digits on a layup with 1:01 left in the third quarter. Missouri Western pushed it's advantage back out to 11 and led 63-52 going into the fourth.
Twice early in the fourth the Ichabods shrunk the deficit back down to nine but both times the Griffons answered with baskets.
Washburn got to the line and shot 9-10 in the final frame but were held to just 3-13 shooting in the quarter and 0-4 from deep. The Ichabods scored the final six points of the game to cut its final deficit to eight.
Highland Park bounces back from loss to take 60-32 win over Schlagle
By JUSTIN BURKHARDT
TopSports.news
Coming off a loss to city rival Topeka High four days earlier, Highland Park's boys bounced back with a big 60-32 Meadowlark Conference win over visiting Kansas City- Schlagle Tuesday night.
The Scots would get off to a hot start, with junior JoJo Kingcannon scoring the team's first 8 points to give his team an 8-4 lead early in the first quarter.
Schlagle would answer with a 6-0 run of their own before the Scots would let them know what the nickname Runnin Scots is all about as they would go on a 25-2 run and go into halftime with a commanding 35-13 lead.
“I thought we were out of position several times in the first quarter. We gave them the lead early on just because we weren’t in rotations the right way,'' Highland Park coach Nate Wallace said. "Once we tightened up, we started buying into sharing the ball, we started sharing it pretty well and pretty often, and it gave us a lot of opportunities to get good looks.”
The third quarter would see the Stallions outscore the Scots 14-9 and leave the Scots with a 44-27 lead going into the fourth.
“We didn’t want to say too much to them coaching wise in the third because we wanted them to figure it out,'' Wallace said. "There is a lot of learning lessons that have to be done, I feel like that was a good, comfortable area to let them try to figure it out and try to get recorrected by themselves, because I am a firm believer in player-led groups, and the one big thing about being a player-led group is you got to take ownership.
"So the third quarter, I sat back and wanted to see and observe a little more if they were going to communicate, if they were going to notice, if the other team was going on a run or not, were they going to slow down, just trying to help grow their basketball IQ’s. And then we talked about it at the end of the quarter, and I feel like we made a stronger force.”
The Scots would outscore the Stallions 16-5 in the fourth to beat the Stallions by 28 points.
The Scots would get huge nights from Kingcannon and sophomore Davion Anderson as Kingcannon would lead all scorers with 21 points on 8-11 shooting and three 3s.
“I put a lot on his plate, I put a lot on his shoulders, he’s been bought in since Day 1,'' Wallace said. "He would do two a days at football and then come into the gym and do basketball. He’s been on varsity for three years now with me being an assistant the last two years.
"I am a firm believer in JoJo, he was a huge part of us last year, and I always knew he can score, and he’s scoring efficiently and that’s what I look for.”
Anderson backed Kingcannon with 15 points, including three 3-pointers.
“I knew from the jump when I got the job and looking at the roster, I was like he is my point guard,'' Wallace said of Anderson. "I told him, 'It is yours to lose.' He’s showing up. He’s staying confident. I tell him all the time as a sophomore, you’re going to make mistakes and I am going to live through your mistakes as a sophomore.”
The Scots have a huge league matchup on Friday as league rival and Class 4A No. 2 and 8-0 Atchison will make the hour trip south to Topeka to face the Scots in a game that has determined the League championship since the Scots entered the league.
“That’s a big breakfast is what we call it,'' Wallace said. "They've got all that you want, They've got bigs, they've got guards, they've got bigger wings and they've got shooters. We are going to stay true to our defensive principles. We are going to make it hard on them and play Runnin Scot basketball, push our way through and see what the outcome is in the fourth quarter.”
HIGHLAND PARK 60, KC-SCHLAGLE 32
KC-Schlagle 11 2 14 5 -- 32
Highland Park 16 19 9 16 -- 60
KC-Schlagle (2-5 1-1) -- Dyer 7-11 1-4 16, White 3-11 2-4 8, Howard 1-3 0-0 3, Frazier 1-1 0-0 2, Jones 0-6 0-2 0, Brown 0-2 2-2 2, Johnson 0-0 1-2 1, Evans 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 12-35 6-14 32.
Highland Park (2-4 2-0) -- Kingcannon 8-11 2-2 21, Anderson 6-12 0-0 15, Montgomery 3-6 0-0 7, Mitchell 3-5 0-0 7, Drew 2-4 0-0 6, Pollard 1-3 0-2 2, Smith 1-5 0-0 2, Nance 0-1 0-2 0. Totals 24-47 2-6 60. 3-point goals — Schlagle 2 (Howard, Dyer) Highland Park 10 ( Kingcannon 3, Anderson 3, Drew 2, Montgomery, Mitchell) Total Fouls -- Schlagle 12, Highland Park 13.
