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A look at Tuesday's Shawnee County girls basketball games
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
TUESDAY'S GAMES
EMPORIA (4-4, 0-0) at HAYDEN (6-2, 0-0)
The Spartans and Wildcats will open Centennial League play on Tuesday, with Hayden opening defense of the league title it captured last season. The Wildcats dropped a 38-36 non-league decision at Shawnee Heights last Friday, Hayden's second straight loss after six straight wins to start the season. Sophomore Hailey Schmidtlein led Hayden with 16 points against the T-Birds while senior Lauren Borjon added 11 points. Emporia is coming off a 32-25 win over Circle.
KK Emmot, Shawnee Heights
DE SOTO (2-3, 1-1) at SHAWNEE HEIGHTS (4-3, 3-1)
Shawnee Heights climbed above .500 with a 38-36 non-league win over Hayden last Friday at home. T-Bird junior KK Emmot scored 9 of her game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter, including the game-winning free throws with 2.9 seconds remaining. Shawnee Heights has now won three straight games after starting the season 1-3. De Soto dropped a 45-34 United Kansas Conference decision to Seaman to close out its pre-holiday slate.
WABAUNSEE (5-1, 2-1) at CAIR PARAVEL (3-3, 0-2)
Cair Paravel Latin ended its 2025 slate with a tight 40-37 Flint Hills League decision to Chase County while Wabaunsee is also coming off a loss, dropping a 68-37 league game to Osage City. London Backman leads CPLS with a 9.8 scoring average while Karsyn Hastert pulls down 5.7 rebounds per game.
Addaline Hall, Topeka West
TOPEKA WEST (1-5, 0-4) at LEAVENWORTH (3-2, 1-2)
Topeka West will be looking for its first United Kansas Conference victory Tuesday night at Leavenworth. Senior Addaline Hall leads the Chargers with a 10.8 scoring average while junior Sydney VanDyke averages 8.8 points and leads the city of Topeka in rebounding with 14.0 per game and in blocked shots with a 3.8 average.
Brynn Anderson, Washburn Rural
WASHBURN RURAL (4-2, 0-0) at JUNCTION CITY (1-4, 0-0)
Washburn Rural will be playing its second game of 2026 in as many nights, opening Centennial League play against the Blue Jays after dropping a 50-35 non-league decision to Olathe North Monday night. Junior Blue freshman Brynn Anderson scored 14 first-half points with three 3-pointers against Olathe North, but sat out the second half after an injury late in the first half. Senior Hallie Walker had 9 points and 5 rebounds for Rural.
A look at Tuesday's Shawnee County boys basketball games
- Details
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
TUESDAY'S GAMES
Connor Hanika, Hayden
EMPORIA (8-0, 0-0) at HAYDEN (3-5, 0-0)
Hayden is coming off a 79-60 non-league loss at Shawnee Heights on Friday while Emporia remained undefeated with a 73-38 non-league romp past Circle. Both the Wildcats and Spartans will be opening Centennial League play Tuesday. Senior Connor Hanika led Hayden with 20 points against Shawnee Heights while junior Mason Becker added 17 points.
Cam Ross, Shawnee Heights
DE SOTO (2-3, 0-2) at SHAWNEE HEIGHTS (3-3, 2-2)
Shawnee Heights evened its record at 3-3 with a 79-60 home win over Hayden last Friday while De Soto closed out 2025 with a 56-40 loss to Seaman on Dec. 19. Junior Cam Ross led Shawnee Heights with 28 points and four 3-pointers against Hayden while senior Ja'Veon Alston added 19 points with a pair of 3-pointers.
WABAUNSEE (5-1, 3-0) at CAIR PARAVEL (4-2, 2-0)
Cair Paravel Latin is off to a solid start, including a 60-39 Flint Hills League win over Chase County on Dec. 19, and faces a tough test Tuesday against a Wabaunsee team that is also unbeaten in league play after a 63-56 win over Osage City to close out 2025. Sophomore Chase Hastert leads Cair Paravel with a 16.3 scoring average and also pulls down 7.5 rebounds a game.
Keimani Paul, Topeka West
TOPEKA WEST (5-1, 4-0) at LEAVENWORTH (2-3, 1-2)
Topeka West will be looking to bounce back Tuesday after the No. 2-ranked (Class 5A) Chargers dropped a 53-49 non-league game at 6A Free State Monday night. Senior Keimani Paul led West with 19 points and four 3-pointers against the Firebirds while senior Malakyah Duncan added 12 points. Leavenworth dropped a 66-36 United Kansas Conference decision to Basehor-Linwood last Friday.
WASHBURN RURAL (5-2, 0-0) at JUNCTION CITY (4-2, 0-0)
Washburn Rural stretched its winning streak to four games with a 68-53 non-league win at Olathe West on Saturday while Junction City has won three straight games after a 56-53 win over Shawnee Mission North last time out. Sophomore Brooks Ballard scored 21 points with six 3-pointers in the Junior Blues' win over Olathe West. Tuesday's game is the Centennial League opener for both Rural and Junction City.
Hayden girls open Centennial League title defense with 16-point win
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Things got a little sloppy at times for Hayden girls basketball Tuesday night, but the Wildcats achieved their most important objective, snapping a brief two-game losing streak with a 53-37 home win over Emporia.
Sophomore Hailey Schmidtlein scored a game-high 14 points in Tuesday's 53-37 Hayden win over Emporia. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Now 7-2 on the season, Hayden begin defense of its Centennial League championship with Tuesday's win, going wire to wire for the Wildcats' second win of the season over the 4-5 Spartans.
"We played with good effort tonight,'' Hayden coach Carvel Reynoldson said. "We defnitely need to clean some stuff up and become a better team, but the effort was there.''
The Wildcats didn't have a great shooting night -- 37.9 percent from the field and 4 of 13 from the free throw line -- and turned the ball over 19 times.
But Hayden pestered the Spartans into 31.7 percent shooting and 24 turnovers.
Hayden, which was coming off a 38-36 heartbreaker at Shawnee Heights last Friday, scored the first four points and went up 8-2 and 10-3 before ending the opening quarter with a 10-5 lead.
The Wildcats outscored the Spartans 13-6 in the second quarter and led by as many as 14 before taking a 23-11 advantage to the locker room at halftime.
Hayden continued to pull away in the third quarter, opening up a 39-21 cushion, and cruised over the final eight minutes.
Sophomore Hailey Schmidtlein scored a game-high 14 points to lead the Wildcats while sophomore Blakely Walter came off the bench to add 10 points as nine Hayden players cracked the scoring column.
Junior Kaylee DeWitt led Emporia with 13 points while sophomore Maycee Davis added 9 points.
Hayden will continue Centennial League play on Friday, going on the road to face Washburn Rural.
HAYDEN GIRLS 53, EMPORIA 37
Emporia 5 6 10 16 -- 37
Hayden 10 13 16 14 -- 53
Emporia (4-5, 0-1) – Aguirre 2-9 0-2 4, Hines 1-2 0-0 3, Wiltz 2-11 2-7 6, DeWitt 5-12 2-2 13, Davis 2-6 5-10 9, Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Hess 1-1 0-0 2, B'Hymer 0-0 0-0 0, Scobee 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-41 9-19 37.
Hayden (7-2, 1-0) – Schmidtlein 6-20 1-2 14, Foster 1-1 1-2 4, Huscher 0-1 1-2 1, Borjon 2-8 0-0 5, Watts 3-5 0-0 6, Walter 4-10 0-2 10, Wichman 1-4 0-0 2, Mitchell 3-6 0-3 6, Wrench 0-0 0-0 0, Connell 2-3 1-2 5, Slyter 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-58 4-13 53.
3-point goals – Emporia 2 (Hines, DeWitt), Hayden 5 (Walter 2, Schmidtlein, Foster, Borjon). Total fouls – Emporia 15, Hayden 16. Fouled out – none. Technical foul -- none.
