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Mason Becker, Kailyn Hanni the Dan Key Farmers Insurance Agency Rising Stars of the Week
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Hayden sophomore boys basketball standout Mason Becker and Silver Lake junior girls basketball standout Kailyn Hanni have been selected by the Dan Key Farmers Insurance Agency as the Rising Stars of the Week.
The Dan Key Agency will recognize top Shawnee County underclassmen throughout the bulk of the 2024-2025 school year.
Here’s a brief look at the accomplishments of Becker and Hanni over the past week:
Hayden sophomore Mason Becker has been named as the Dan Key Farmers Insurance Agency male Rising Star of the Week after helping lead the Wildcats to the Baldwin Invitational championship. [File photo/TSN]
MASON BECKER, Hayden
Becker scored 20 points with five 3-pointers last Saturday as the Wildcats won the tournament championship in the Baldwin Invitational with a 63-49 win over the host Bulldogs. Becker helped Hayden cap a 3-0 run in the tournament, also scoring 16 points in a 63-50 win over defending Class 3A state champion Wellsville.
Silver Lake junior Kailyn Hanni has been named the Dan Key Farmers Insurance Agency female Rising Star of the Week after leading the Eagles to the Burlington Invitational title. [File photo/TSN]
KAILYN HANNI, Silver Lake
A junior guard, was named the Most Outstanding Player in last week's Burlington Invitational after helping lead Silver Lake to the tournament championship. Hanni scored 22 points in the Eagles' 70-60 win over Labette County in the championship game and scored 64 points in the tournament for the Eagles. Hanni followed that up with 16 points in the Eagles' 50-49 win over Rock Creek on Tuesday.
Ichabod men set program record with 20th straight win to open season, 74-65 over Tigers
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
No. 1-ranked Washburn University men's basketball set a school record for the most consecutive wins to start a season Thursday night, improving to 20-0 and 11-0 in the MIAA with a 74-65 win over Fort Hays State in Lee Arena.
Sophomore Jack Bachelor led the way with 20 points as Washburn won its program-record 20th straight game to open the season Thursday night. [File photo/TSN]
The Ichabods scored the first pair of points on a layup by Michael Keegan, but the Tigers (13-6, 6-4) took the lead back, scoring 7 of the next 9 of the game and would go on to build a lead of as many as 7 in the opening half with 11:26 to play, 17-10.
With the Ichabods down 20-15 with 7:47 to play in the half, Washburn ripped off a 21-4 run to close the half with Jack Bachelor scoring the final nine points of the frame for the Ichabods as Washburn took a 36-24 lead into the break. Washburn was 7 of 9 during the final 7:20 of the first half while the Ichabod defense held the Tigers to 1 of 8 shooting.
In the second half, the Ichabods were holding a 17-point lead at 53-36 with 11:50 to go, but the Tigers used a 10-0 run trimming the Washburn lead to seven with 10:04 left. The Tigers would go on to cut the lead to six with 5:55 to play and for the final time with 5:16 to play before Brayden Shorter hit a 3-pointer to help push Washburn's lead back to 10 at 64-54. The Tigers would not get any closer than eight the rest of the way as Washburn hit 8 of 9 free throws in the final 3:19, securing its 20th straight win in front of a crowd of more than 3,000 in Lee Arena.
Bachelor led the Ichabods with 20 points while adding five assists.
Jacob Hanna scored 15 points and added seven boards and Brady Christiansen recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Andrew Orr finished with 10 points.
Kyle Grill led the Tigers with 25 points.
Washburn shot 47 percent from the field, hitting 22 of 47 overall, and held the Tigers to 44 percent shooting at 24 of 55. The Ichabods hit 25 of 33 free throws and held a 36 to 24 advantage on the glass.
Washburn committed 14 turnovers leading to 22 points for the Tigers and the Washburn bench outscored the Tiger bench 18 to 6.
WU women fall to No. 8-ranked Tigers
Washburn could not overcome a slow offensive start Thursday as the Ichabods fell 85-47 to No. 8 Fort Hays State in Lee Arena.
The Ichabods (11-10, 5-6) got the first bucket of the game from Yibari Nwidadah 28 seconds in. The next 10 points all went to the Tigers (17-2, 8-2) as they held Washburn to 3-12 shooting in the first quarter. All seven points for the Ichabods in the first frame came from Nwidadah as they trailed 18-7 after 10 minutes.
In the second quarter Washburn cut the lead back to single digits, scoring the first three points of the quarter, making it 18-10 after Payton Sterk got a layup to go at the 8:25 mark. Fort Hays State scored the next four points to push it back to double digits as the visitors offense began to heat up, shooting 8-14 (57.1 percent) in the quarter. The Ichabod offense wasn't able to keep pace in the final five minutes as the visitors went into the half leading 41-17.
Capital City Classic: T-Birds, Junior Blues roll to title game matchup
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Shawnee Heights entered Friday's Capital City Classic semifinal against Topeka West having already taken 17 and 28-point wins over the Chargers this season.
Sophomore KK Emmot scored a game-high 25 points as Shawnee Heights advanced to the Capital City Classic title game with a 65-32 semifinal win over Topeka West. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
But T-Bird coach Bob Wells wanted to make sure his team took nothing for granted against West, which was coming off a big overtime win over Highland Park in the opening round.
"That's what I told them, that this needed to be all business,'' Wells said. "There couldn't be any messing around, we had to be focused and we had to have good energy and we needed to get right after it from the beginning and do a good job of taking care of the ball, no unforced errors and things like that and just work on improving.''
Heights then went out and heeded Wells' message, rolling to Saturday's 11:30 a.m. championship game with a 65-32 win.
The 8-4 T-Birds put the 2-9 Chargers away with a 19-4 start and were in control by 20 points (37-17) at the halftime break.
Heights then hit West with a 24-7 lick in the third quarter, forcing a running clock throughout the fourth quarter.
Senior Haley Bowers scored 13 points in Shawnee Heights' 65-32 semifinal win over Topeka West Friday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Senior Kaydence Torrez (20) had 10 points and 11 rebounds in Shawnee Heights' 65-32 win over Topeka West on Friday. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN[]
Sophomore standout KK Emmot powered the T-Birds with a game-high 25 points while senior Haley Bowers added 13 points and Kaydence Torrez and Reianna Vega 10 apiece. Torrez also grabbed 11 rebounds.
Junior Imani McGlory led Topeka West with 12 points.
With the win the T-Birds earned a shot at city rival Washburn Rural in Saturday's title game, with the Junior Blues advancing with a 75-48 semifinal win over Lawrence.
Topeka West will take on Lawrence in the 10 a.m. third-place game.
SHAWNEE HEIGHTS 65, TOPEKA WEST 32
Shawnee Heights 19 18 24 4 -- 65
Topeka West 4 13 7 8 -- 32
Shawnee Heights (8-4) – Emmot 7-11 8-10 25, T. Brees 0-2 0-0 0, Bowers 5-12 1-2 13, Torrez 5-7 0-1 10, Vega 4-9 1-1 10, Hanshaw 1-7 0-0 3, Akins 0-0 0-0 0, L. Brees 0-3 0-0 0, Scherer 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-54 12-16 65.
Topeka West (2-9) – I. McGlory 4-12 2-2 12, VanDyke 2-7 0-4 4, Keeling 0-1 0-0 0, Hall 2-9 2-4 6, Gonzales 1-9 1-2 3, A. McGlory 2-6 0-0 5, Allen 0-3 0-0 0, Kutina 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 12-48 5-12 32.
3-point goals – Shawnee Heights 7 (Emmot 3, Bowers 2, Hanshaw, Vega), Topeka West 3 (I. McGlory 2, A. McGlory). Total fouls – Shawnee Heights 7, Topeka West 15. Fouled out – none. Technical fouls – none.
Sophomore Maddie Vickery scored a game-high 33 points in Washburn Rural's 75-48 semifinal win over Lawrence Friday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Vickery has 33-point night as Rural romps to 75-48 win
Lawrence got No. 5-ranked (Class 6A) Washburn Rural's attention when it took a 30-27 lead with three minutes left in the first half of Friday's second Capital City Classic semifinal.
But the Junior Blues responded wih a 48-point scoring onslaught the rest of the night, rolling to a championship game berth with a 75-48 win over the Lions.
Lawrence rode a barrage of early 3-pointers to its 3-point lead, but Washburn Rural (7-3) ended the first half with a 10-0 run to open up a 37-30 advantage and never looked back.
"I thought we were a lot more focused on both ends of the floor and we were just patient and had good spacing with our offense to kind of make that little break at the break,'' Rural coach Kevin Bordewick said. "And then I thought the start of the third quarter we had an intention about getting the ball inside a little bit more and then Madison Lemke stepped up and took two charges and I think it took them out of their rhythm a little bit.''
Rural tacked on six more unanswered points to take a 43-30 lead 49 seconds into the second half, took a 58-42 lead at the end of the quarter and went on to lead by as many as 29 points late in the contest.
Maddie Vickery, a 6-foot-1 sophomore, led all scorers with 33 points, going 15 of 19 at the free throw line as Rural took advantage of a decided height advantage.
"We were really trying to get paint touches,'' Vickery said. "That's one of the big things we strive for as a team because even in practice when we get a paint touch everything good happens.''
Vickery was the only player in double figures for the Junior Blues, but Rural had nine players crack the scoring column, including seven with five or more points.
Senior Brynnae Johnson led Lawrence (6-5) with 13 points.
Washburn Rural will face city rival Shawnee Heights in Saturday's 11:30 a.m. championship game.
WASHBURN RURAL 75, LAWRENCE 48
Washburn Rural 20 17 21 17 -- 75
Lawrence 18 12 12 6 -- 48
Washburn Rural (7-3) – Hinck 4-8 0-0 8, Rutherford 2-5 0-0 6, Vickery 8-19 15-19 33, Lemke 3-7 2-3 8, Bunck 2-5 1-2 5, Hirschi 0-3 0-0 0, Moore 1-1 2-2 5, Hayes 2-3 0-0 6, Walker 0-1 0-0 0, Simpson 0-0 0-0 0, Carlgren 1-3 0-0 2, Petersen 1-2 0-2 2. Totals 24-57 20-28 75.
Lawrence (6-5) – Glover 0-2 0-0 0, Baars 3-6 0-0 9, Barnes 2-2 0-0 5, Johnson 4-12 4-5 13, Ramos 2-3 0-0 6, Barber 4-9 0-0 9, Juelsgaard 2-9 1-3 6, Urish 0-0 0-0 0, Koehn 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-43 5-8 48.
3-point goals – Washburn Rural 7 (Vickery 2, Hayes 2, Rutherford 2, Moore), Lawrence 9 (Baars 3, Ramos 2, Barnes, Johnson, Juelsgaard). Total fouls – Washburn Rural 13, Lawrence 22. Fouled out – none. Technical fouls – none.
