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North takes control in second half to top short-handed Rural, 50-35
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural girls basketball coach Kevin Bordewick knew that his No. 6-ranked Junior Blues were going to face a tough task to knock off No. 9 Olathe North Monday night.
Freshman Brynn Anderson scored 14 first-half points with three 3-pointers in Washburn Rural's 50-35 loss to Olathe North Monday night. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
And that task became a lot tougher after 6-foot freshman Brynn Anderson, who scored 14 first-half points with three 3-pointers, missed the second half for precautionary reasons after Anderson hit her head on the court after drawing a charging foul.
Olathe North, now 6-1 on the season, took advantage of Anderson's absence while also forcing 23 turnovers en route to a 50-35 road win.
"(Brynn) was shooting it well, she was in a great rhythm,'' Bordewick said. "(Losing her) took the wind out of our sails a little bit, but we're not going to make excuses. We've got other people that can play, other people on that floor.
"And it's not that you have to do what Brynn does, but we have to do what we can do as a team to do a little better than what we did.''
Anderson hit all three of her 3-pointers in the first quarter to help Rural (4-2) go up 14-7 and opened the second stanza with an old-fasioned 3-point play to give the Junior Blues a 17-7 advantage at the 6:48 mark of the second quarter.
But Olathe North used a 13-0 run to take a 20-17 advantage before Anderson scored her final points of the night with 22 seconds remaining to cut Rural's halftime deficit to a point at 20-19.
The Eagles took control with an 18-6 third quarter to build a 38-25 advantage and the Junior Blues got no closer than nine the rest of the way.
Senior Hallie Walker scored 9 points and grabbed five rebounds in Washburn Rural's 50-35 loss to Olathe North Monday night. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSNl
Anderson was the lone Washburn Rural player to crack double figures while senior Hallie Walker added 9 points and senior Ella Hirschi 7 with a pair of 3-pointers.
Senior Asia Lee led Olathe North with a game-high 19 points while sophomore Lailah Boyd recorded a double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds.
WU women take control in second half for 68-52 non-conference win over Bulldogs
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
There was very little that Washburn University women's basketball coach Lora Westling was happy about at halftime of Tuesday's home non-conference game against Truman State and Westling imparted that displeasure to her team in no uncertain terms.
Junior Britany Kogbara scored a team-high 18 points in her first Washburn start, helping lead the Ichabods to a 68-52 win over Truman State. {Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
And although Westling didn't get everything she was looking for out of her team in the second half, the Ichabods did plenty enough to take control on the way to a 68-52 victory in Lee Arena while improving to 7-3 on the season.
"It's sad that with the experienced group that we have, with that many seniors, that I have to raise my voice like that to get any sort of response,'' Westling said. "It's disappointing, but I'm glad it worked. Aniah (Wayne) came out and had a great second half with effort and I thought Britany (Kogbara) wanted the ball a little more, but we still didn't get as much as we needed.
"We had a great opportunity for some players to step up and show some things tonight and that level of effort and execution is just not to the standard that we've set here.''
Early offense built a lead in the opening minutes for Washburn as the Ichabods led 9-6 after Kogbara, a junior, got a layup to go.
But the next six points went to the Bulldogs (4-6) to go in front. The Ichabods finished the opening quarter on a 5-0 run and led 16-14 after a 3-pointer by Wayne, a senior, with 32 seconds left in the quarter.
Washburn extended its lead to 21-14 after senior Gabi Giovannetti connected from deep, but the Ichabod offense went cold and was held scoreless for the next five minutes as Truman State pulled within two.
The lead went back to the Bulldogs in the final minute before half as they went into the locker room leading 28-27 after both teams shot under 30 percent in the half.
Washburn shot 28.6 percent in the second quarter while committing 12 first-half turnovers and giving up 18 first-half points to Truman State's Emajin McCallop, a former Ichabod.
But Washburn came out of the break with the first five points to go in front and the lead quickly grew to double-digits with a triple by junior Madelyn Amekporfor at the 3:26 mark of the third quarter as part of a 15-0 run.
The Ichabods hit 8 of 15 shots in the third while holding the Bulldogs to 25 percent shooting and led 47-35 heading to the fourth quarter.
The Washburn offense continued to churn in the fourth as the Ichabod lead reached 24 points before Truman State cut its final deficit to 16 points.
"I think we're very capable of bouncing back from adversity,'' Wayne said. "I think we kind of were shocked in the first half, but I think as a team we made sure to get in tight huddles and just know that we could do it and play our game.
"We had a big bounce back in the third quarter and that really set the tone for the rest of the game.''
After a 41-point second half the Ichabods shot 43.5 percent for the game while holding the Bulldogs to 18-57 (31.6 percent) shooting overall.
The rebounding battle was won 44-29 by Washburn, which led 42-24 in paint scoring as well.
Kogbara, making her first start for the Ichabods in the absence of injured senior star Yibari Nwidadah, led four players in double figures for the Ichabods with 18 points on 9 of 12 shooting while also adding five rebounds and two blocks.
"I wasn't nervous coming in,'' Kogbara said. "I've been in this position before and just knew I had to be aggressive.
"Me and Yibari, we've been competing since Day 1 in practice and we're different players, but we're kind of similar in many ways. I really love how she's been competing with me and she pretty much prepared me for this moment.''
Amekporfor had 13 points on 6 of 9 shooting while Giovannetti chippped in 12 points and senior Payton Sterk finished with 10.
Senior Aniah Wayne grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds with 7 points and four steals in Tuesday's 68-52 Washburn win over Truman State. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Wayne scored seven points while adding a career and game-high 10 rebounds and registering four steals.
"We've emphasized rebounding in practice and we know it can be a game changer,'' Wayne said. "Rebounding was big in this game and I think taking on that role was very important and just knowing that I could do it.''
Washburn women dominate Turnpike Tussle, rolling to 86-59 win over Hornets,
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University women's basketball rung in the new year with its fourth straight win on Saturday, rolling to an 86-59 MIAA decision over rival Emporia State in the Turnpike Tussle at Lee Arena.
Washburn seniors Yibari Nwidadah (32) and Payton Sterk (20) combined for 41 points in Saturday's 86-59 win over Emporia State. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The Ichabods, now 10-3 overall and 3-1 in the conference, went wire to wire for the win after scoring the first seven points of the game and leading by as many as 33 points.
"We wanted to see the momentum build from Oklahoma (16 and 29-point wins), where we started defending well,'' Washburn coach Lora Westling said. "That's what we challenged our players to do and I thought that gave us a great cushion early.
"It was just a great team effort on both ends of the floor.''
Senior Payton Sterk scored 21 points and hit 5 of 7 3-pointers in Saturday's 86-59 MIAA win over Emporia State. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Senior Payton Sterk led Washburn with a game-high 21 points on 8 of 14 shooting overall and a 5 of 7 performance from 3-point range while also adding four assists.
Sterk had gone 0 of 8 on 3-point attempts in her first three conference games before Saturday's breakout game.
"I think the Christmas break was good,'' Sterk said. "We were shooting a lot at practice and that kind of thing, so it got us going.''
Senior Yibari Nwidadah scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in Saturday's 86-59 win over Emporia State. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Senior Yibari Nwidadah had a double-double with 20 points on 7 of 11 shooting along with 12 rebounds. Senior Gabi Giovannetti added nine points on 3 of 4 shooting from 3-point range along with seven rebounds, a steal and block. Senior Aniah Wayne also had nine points off the bench.
After entering concussion protocol following an injury against Central Missouri, Nwidadah missed one game and played limited minutes in WU's next two games before Saturday's big game.
"I feel great,'' Nwidadah said. "We talked in the locker room about just making sure that everyone knew we were ready to go and just pouring energy into everyone else.
"I felt like we did a really good job of that and it started from the beginning of the game.''
The Lady Hornets (7-6, 1-3) were held in check for nearly the first four minutes before getting on the board.
Washburn responded by scoring the next 11 points, leading 18-2 after two straight 3-pointers by Sterk.
Sterk connected on another trey to end the first quarter with the Ichabods leading 23-6 after holding Emporia State to 1 of 11 shooting from the floor.
The hot shooting for the Ichabods continued to start the second quarter as Washburn pushed its lead to 20 points after another set of back-to-back 3s by Sterk.
Washburn shot 6 of 11 from deep in the quarter and finished the first half with 11 makes from behind the arc on 17 attempts.
The Ichabods scored 26 points in the second quarter to take a 49-26 advantage into halftime.
Nwidadah scored the first six points of the second half for Washburn to push its lead to 25. The Lady Hornets eventually reduced their deficit to 18 points, but a pair of buckets inside by Nwidadah pushed the lead back over 20 with the Ichabods shooting 9 of 12 from the floor in the quarter to lead 73-49 after three.
A 5-0 run for Washburn early in the fourth quarter gave the Ichabods their game-high 33-point advantage after a 3-pointer by Giovannetti and a layup from Nwidadah.
The Ichabods held Emporia State without a field goal in the final quarter until the final 30 seconds of the game.
The quick offensive start offensively pushed the Ichabods to their most efficient game of the year, with Washburn hitting 33 of 65 attempts from the floor (50.8 percent), including a 12 of 20 showing from outside the 3-point arc (60.0%).
