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Hayden girls take 51-40 Centennial League win over city rival Topeka High
By JUSTIN BURKHARDT
TopSports.news
No. 7-ranked Hayden girls basketball hosted city and Centennial League rival Topeka High Tuesday night, remaining undefeated in league play with a 51-40 home win over the Trojans.
Sophomore Hailey Schmidtlein scored a game-high 16 points Tuesday in Hayden's 51-40 Centennial League win over Topeka High. [File photo/TSN]
Topeka High would score first with senior Trish Short scoring the first basket, but Hayden would answer with sophomore Hailey Schmidtlein finding the basket to tie it up at two.
Hayden would go on a 8-2 run to end the first quarter up 10-4.
“In the first half, we only turned the ball over three times,'' Hayden coach Carvel Reynoldson said. "So when you only turn the ball over three times, you know you're going to start hitting stuff. I was actually happy when it was 10-4, I know we only had 10 points, but we were playing good defense.''
Both teams would wake up in the second quarter and would start finding the basket, as Topeka High junior Ahsieyrhuajh Rayton would score 4 of her 7 points in the quarter and the Trojans would go into halftime trailing the Wildcats, 23-15.
Both teams would come out of the locker room hoping for a spark and Hayden would get off to a hot start with a 9-5 run to get the third started and the Wildcats would stretch its lead to 32-18.
The Trojans would get a little spark but Hayden’s Alana Mitchell would get a steal at halfcourt and drive to the basket and force another turnover on the very next possession and grab another basket to kill the Trojans' rally as the third quarter would come to an end with the Wildcats up 38-26.
Topeka High sophomore Hailey Caryl would try to give her team a spark in the fourth as she would score the first two baskets in the quarter and would score 7 of her team-high 15 in the fourth quarter.
It wouldn’t be enough because Hayden’s Schmidtlein would score 6 more of her game-high 16 in the fourth to solidify the win for her team.
“Honestly, a big thing is I focus on my defense and my defensive effort and my attitude on defense can carry over and it will carry over,'' Schmidtlein said. "If we just keep playing as a team on defense, we were bound to start making shots.”
Hanika powers Hayden boys to 72-56 Centennial League win over Trojans
By JUSTIN BURKHARDT
TopSports.news
Hayden senior Connor Hanika led the way with a 25-point night Tuesday as the Hayden boys picked up their first Centennial League win of the season with a 72-56 home romp past Topeka High.
Senior Connor Hanika scored a game-high 26 points in Tuesday's 72-56 Hayden win over Topeka High. [File photo/TSN]
Tuesday's game would be a good one early as both teams would attack early and often with a combined 37 points being scored in the first quarter, while producing the only four lead changes in the game.
Hanika hit 10 of 15 shots from the field and five of seven attempts from the free throw line. He was 6 of 7 from the field at halftime.
“That was deliberate,'' Hayden coach Dwayne Anthony said. "I mean, he had to go do the work, but Connor explained to the team he needs more touches, We can run the offense through Connor.
He has a very high basketball IQ. I’m not surprised at all. And I'm thankful that he responded to the call like the leader he is.”
“The biggest thing we've talked about this week is staying together and being a family, and that's what we were tonight,'' Hanika said. "And then my teammates found me and they did a really good job. I got in a groove, my teammates found me, and I just started going and it was fun.”
The Wildcats would take a 39-27 halftime lead and come out of the locker room and go on a 9-0 run before the Trojans would find the basket.
By that point the Trojans were down twenty points, 50-30.
The Trojans would then go on a 13-0 run of their own to get back in the hunt. Led by senior Bryson McComas, who would score 8 of his team-high 18 on that run to end the third quarter.
“Calm down -- that's usually my message to them,'' Anthony said. "My guys were just competing for a state title in football, you know. So sometimes changing gears is a little different for us. But they're doing it. And sometimes it's being calm and not just letting the pace control them. Controlling the pace is just something that we're learning how to do. Everybody goes on runs.''
The Wildcats would out-score the Trojans 20-13 in the fourth quarter to take the 16-point win.
Shawnee Heights boys hold off Piper for 72-70 UKC victory
By VINCE LOVERGINE
TopSports.news
Shawnee Heights boys basketball was in danger of letting a 25-point lead get away Tuesday night, but the T-Birds were able to hold off No. 7-ranked Piper in the final seconds for a 72-70 home United Kansas Conference victory.
JaiMarion Cook led Shawnee Heights with 25 points in Tuesday's 72-70 UKC win over Piper. [File photo/TSN]
The two programs have had their battles with one another over the last couple of years, especially in the state tournament, and Heights was able to snap a five-game losing streak to Piper.
“The first half was great and we were beating a great team by over 20 points,'' Shawnee Heights coach Ken Darting said. "We played great, but these guys get tired, missing free throws, turning the ball over, the shot comes up short. We can’t work any harder, I promise you, we just got to get more guys playing.''
Darting said the T-Birds currently have a small rotation and when they play a game like Tuesday's, players get gassed. Ja'Veon Alston started cramping and while freshman Quincy Dixon left the game after falling hard on his back drawing a foul early in the game.
“First half I thought we played great, we played as a team,'' Heights senior JaiMarion Cook said. "The whole season we’ve had a problem with closing games. Every game we’ve lost has come by single digits. We just got to learn how to stay poised as a team and I trusted in my teammates tonight and that’s why we got the win.''
Senior Aiden Scott scored the first seven points for SHHS after hitting a triple, putting them up 7-2. Piper would draw within one at 11-10 but that’s the closest they got for the remainder of the half.
Cook hit a 3-pointer with four seconds left in the first quarter off an assist from junior Cam Ross to put the T-Birds up 21-13.
Cook then took off, scoring 11 of the 13 points in the second quarter, while hitting two 3s, putting Heights up 27-17. About a minute later, off an offensive rebound, Alston put one off the window, forcing the Pirates into a timeout with 3:21 left in the half after Heights claimed its biggest lead, 29-17.
Cook went on to score five points down the stretch of the quarter, hitting three 3s in the right corner pocket, helping SHHS to an eight point lead at halftime, 34-26.
In the second half, Cook picked up where he left off, hitting another shot from distance to put the T-Birds in front 39-28 and Heights kept increasing its lead. Alston scored in transition off a turnover that caused Piper to call a timeout with 5:19 left in the third quarter.
The T-Birds got their lead up to 25, 57-32, after another Cook 3 and headed into the fourth quarter up 58-42.
But then the Pirates pressed, trapped and doubled teamed anytime they could to cut the deficit and they accomplished that goal, getting it down to a 60-52 game until Ross hit two free throws to put it back up to 10.
“For me it was how I can keep this team together?” Cook said. “How can I keep us all calm because we’ve been in these situations so many times and this game was the first time we got one of these done. I was trying to get my teammates all on the same page. During free throws, I was talking to each one of them on how we have to communicate.”
Piper brought it down to just two with 1:39 left in the game after converting a three-point play, 66-64, but then Ross and Alston put up four straight for the T-Birds as they led 70-66. But then Piper would score again, making it a two-point game.
It was getting loud and the tension was growing knowing the stakes of this game and recent history. Cooper Crawford for Piper drove in for a two-hand flush as SHHS led 71-70. Ross was then fouled off the inbounds play, made one of two free throws with about 10 seconds left and Piper couldn’t get a shot off as time expired.
