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Topeka West girls earn regular-season sweep over Highland Park, 65-33
By JUSTIN BURKHARDT
TopSports.news
City and USD 501 girls basketball rivals Topeka West and Highland Park faced off again Wednesday night in a rematch from Dec. 3rd when Topeka West took a 23-point win at Highland Park.
The Chargers finished off the regular-season sweep over the Scots with a 65-33 romp on West's home court.
Senior Addaline Hall scored a game-high 15 points in Topeka West's 65-33 win over Highland Park Wednesday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The Chargers were coming off a seventh-place Glaciers Edge finish in Emporia over the past weekend by defeating Shawnee Mission West 57-54 in overtime and the Lady Scots were coming off a 50-31 win over Kansas City-Washington on Tuesday.
With both teams entering the game off wins 6-foot junior Sydney VanDyke stole the show for the Lady Chargers as she would use her length to turn the game into a block party down low all night long.
VanDyke would get the first basket of the night before the Scots' Zayah Kincade would hit two shots at the free throw line to tie it up at 2-2 before VanDyke would score again to give her team the early 4-2 lead.
Kincade tied things back up at 4 before Charger Patience Allen hit the first of her two 3s to make it 7-4.
Highland Park would go on a 9-0 run with Kincade scoring five more points during the run as the Scots would end the first quarter with a13-9 advantage.
The Scots would start the second quarter with nine quick points to stretch the lead to 22-15, but the Chargers would tighten up and go on a 9-2 run to force a tie at halftime, 26-26.
“We kind of challenged them to come out the second half and put it together and they did, they worked hard and earned it,” Topeka West coach Angie Ketterman said.
The Lady Scots would come out of the locker room ice cold as West, led by VanDyke, would out-score the Scots 25-2 with VanDyke scoring nine more points in the third quarter.
“We have been like that all season where we play better in the second half of games then we do in the first half,” VanDyke said.
Topeka West would end the third quarter with a commanding lead of 51-28. The fourth quarter would see Highland Park try to come up with an answer, but the Lady Chargers would lock the Scots down and out-score them 14-5 in the fourth to finish the season sweep with the 32-point victory.
Senior Addaline Hall led Topeka West with a game-high 15 points while Allen had 14 points and VanDyke 13.
The Scots would be led in scoring by Kincade with 12.
No. 2-ranked Chargers take 84-60 win over Highland Park
By JUSTIN BURKHARDT
TopSports.news
Class 5A No. 2-ranked Topeka West hosted crosstown rival Highland Park on Wednesday night, seeking a regular-season sweep after dropping two games to the Scots last season.
Senior Malakyah Duncan led Topeka West with 19 points Wednesday as all five Charger starters cracked double figures in West's 84-60 win over Highland Park. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
And the Chargers delivered in convincing fashion, taking an 84-60 win to improve to 14-2 on the season.
After West trailed 5-2 early, senior Keimani Paul would score five straight points to put his team up 7-5 and the Chargers would go on a 12-0 run to stretch the lead to 19-5 before ending the first quarter with a commanding 26-11 lead.
Paul scored 10 of his 14 points in the first quarter while West senior Gad Munganga would score the first basket of the second quarter and the eighth point of his 16 total on the night.
“Gad is never afraid of the big moment,'' Topek West coach Christian Ulsaker said. "I think he's kind of developed that over the past year with just tons of reps and shots in the gym in the summer. And that's what it takes to become a great shooter, just repetition after repetition.”
Highland Park junior JoJo Kingcannon would get to the basket for the Scots, but they would keep chasing the Chargers, who would turn to their size with 6-foot-4 senior Malakyah Duncan and 6-6 junior Prince Lassiter.
West would start to feed Lassiter but the Scots would crash on Lassiter and force him to pass it out to others.
“I told them just keep on attacking in terms of slashing to the rim,'' Ulsaker said. "When Prince gets it, if they do double, he'll be able to find you either when you relocate for 3 or when you slash backside, cut back door to get an easy bucket from Prince.”
The Scots would hold Lassiter to only seven points at halftime, but West would take a commanding 52-29 lead into the locker room.
Paul would drive to the basket at the start of the third and pick up the and-one for an old fashioned three-point play. Kingcannon would try to get the Scots back in it as he would hit back to back 3-pointers and go on a 10-1 run by himself to make it 56-38.
But that would be the Scots' last gasp of air as the Chargers would just start to pound it inside and force contact with the Scots to get fouls and get to the free throw line.
Lassiter would score six in the third quarter, helping Topeka West push the lead to 70-47 going into the fourth quarter.
Ulsaker would pull his starters and let his backups get some minutes in the fourth as they would pull out the 24-point rivalry win.
“It was good to get the monkey off our back,'' Ulsaker said. "I don't think our boys had ever beat Park yet, so it was just another milestone for them. The first one was they beat Shawnee Heights at Shawnee Heights for the first time in their career and the same thing now as beating Highland Park for the first time in their career.
"Whenever you beat a storied program like Highland Park, It's always a monumental thing.”
Duncan led Topeka West with 19 points as all five Charger starters cracked double figures.
Highland Park junior JoJo Kingcannon led all scorers with 23 points in Wednesday's 84-60 loss to Topeka West. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The Scots got another huge night from Kingcannon, who would lead all scorers with 23.
Seaman boys handle Spring Hill behind Bonner’s 16 points, balanced scoring
By VINCE LOVERGINE
TopSports.news
No. 7 ranked (Class 5A) Seaman boys basketball has now won five of its last six games, moving to 13-3 on the year Wednesday night with a 62-51 home victory over Spring Hill.
Senior KaeVon Bonner led a balanced Seaman attack with 16 points in Wednesday's 62-51 home win over Spring Hill. [File photo/TSN]
“I thought defensively we were really good because they have some quality players that are capable of scoring points and we did a really good job on making everything (difficult) for them,” Seaman coach Craig Cox said. “Then in the second half I thought offensively we had a nice rhythm and flow to help us build that lead in the fourth quarter.”
“I thought it was good from everyone,” said senior Cameron Brian, who had 13 points. “Griffin (Zuniga) was really good on the boards, Landon (Wiltz) does what he always does and gets those corner 3s for us which we use on momentum, KaVeon did a great job facilitating the offense and helping find the open guys and that helped with our success.”
The Vikings built a 6-3 lead in the early going which was pushed to 8-3 after a put-back bucket from senior Matthew McConnaughey. Spring Hill hit a triple to bring it to 8-6 but senior Wiltz followed it up with one of his own, making it 11-6 and Seaman took the 13-7 lead into the second quarter.
Brian would help halt a mini-5-0 run from the Broncos with a three as the Vikings led 16-11 and eventually got their biggest lead of the game, 23-15. Spring Hill and Seaman went cold for a little bit and turned the ball over but Seaman took an eight-point lead into the break, 25-17.
The Vikes would build a 12 point lead in the third quarter after a couple of quick buckets, but Spring Hill went on a 12-4 run, cutting its deficit to just four.
But after that Seaman regained control for good. After Bonner and Wiltz scored five points combined, they led by 10, 42-32 heading into the fourth.
“I thought Matthew McConnaughey contributed on the boards, especially in the first half, and Cameron (Brian) picked up in the second half, which was big for us. He’s a linebacker. He’s got a linebacker mentality. He plays strong and we need that. We need him to be strong going to the boards… that definitely helped limit their second-chance opportunities,” Cox said.
In the fourth stanza, Seaman kept extending its lead. Brian and Wiltz hit one three apiece to put the Vikings up 49-34 and then Wiltz would convert an and-one making it 52-36 with 5:35 remaining in the game.
