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Freshman Anderson powers Rural girls to fourth straight win, 55-42 over Blue Valley
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Fresh off last week's championship in the Glaciers Edge Tournament, Washburn Rural girls basketball ran its winning streak to four games Wednesday night, riding a big night from freshman Brynn Anderson to a 55-42 non-league home win over Blue Valley.
Freshman Brynn Anderson scored 25 points with five 3-pointers in Wednesday's 55-42 Washburn Rural win over Blue Valley. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Anderson, named the Most Valuable Player in last week's tournament, scored a game-high 25 points with five 3-pointers and a six of six performance at the free throw line to lead the way as the 10th-ranked (Class 6A) Junior Blues ran their record to 11-4 on the season.
"She's been that way pretty much all year and you see almost every day in practice her development and getting better,'' Washburn Rural coach Kevin Bordewick said. "We've got some kids that know we've got to get her the ball a little bit and we've got other kids that will step up.
"Brynn on the offensive end has been real consistent for us and it's kind of fun to see her light it up from outside a little bit, too.''
Washburn Rural senior Josie Carlgren had a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds in Wednesday's 55-42 win over Blue Valley. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Washburn Rural also got a double-double from senior Josie Carlgren, who scored 12 points and grabbed 13 rebounds while hitting a pair of 3-pointers and going four of four at the free throw line.
Rural only trailed once in the game at 8-7 and there were just two ties (at 5-5 and 13-all), but 8-8 Blue Valley was within single-digits for most of the night before the Junior Blues opened up their biggest lead of the night at 55-41 with 18.3 seconds remaining.
Blue Valley had three players crack double figures, led by senior Lucy Kennedy with 14 points and four 3-pointers. Sophomore Devin Splittorff added 11 points and sophomore Taylor Forgy 10 for the Tigers.
"They're really not a bad team,'' Bordewick said of the Tigers. "They're a better team than maybe what their record indicates and I think a better team tonight than what we saw last week at Emporia even, because they were in that.
"They shot well, I thought they played hard and they gave us obviously quite a run. But I was proud of these guys. I thought we competed and we worked hard on the defensive end to get it going on offense and I thought we did a pretty good job.''
Short-handed Rural boys drop 55-54 heartbreaker to No. 6-ranked Blue Valley
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Playing without injured senior starters John Hoytal and Simon Rowley, Washburn Rural boys basketball came within 4.2 seconds of pulling off an upset victory over No. 6-ranked Blue Valley Wednesday night, with the Tigers escaping with a 55-54 road win over the Junior Blues on Brendan Walsh's game-winning 3-pointer.
Sophomore Brooks Ballard scored a game-high 22 points with five 3-pointers in Washburn Rural's 55-54 loss to Blue Valley. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
"I'm proud of our guys,'' Washburn Rural coach Alex Hutchins said. "I'm proud of the way we fought and proud of the way we played. It just comes down to a couple of possessions here and there at the end, just a little bit of execution.
"I thought we played really, really smart and really sound to the scout until about the last two minutes of the game.''
The short-handed Junior Blues led for much of the night in a game that was close throughout as sophomore Brooks Ballard powered 9-6 Rural with a game-high 22 points and five 3-pointers, but Walsh, a junior, scored the Tigers' final seven points as Blue Valley improved to 11-5.
"When the other team's got the best player in the gym, you try to make other people make plays and we let their best player score their last seven points,'' Hutchins said. "We've got to be smarter than that. We've got to make someone else do it.''
Blue Valley led 13-11 at the end of the opening quarter, but Ballard scored the final five points of the first half to give the Junior Blues a 27-21 at the break.
Rural went up by eight points (29-21) on a bucket by junior Cooper Schmidt to open the second half, but Blue Valley battled back to tie the game at 38-38 entering the fourth quarter.
There were two ties and three lead changes the rest of the way, including four straight points by Ballard to give Rural a 54-52 advantage with 11.6 seconds left before Walsh struck the final blow for the Tigers.
Washburn Rural junior Cooper Scmidt scored eight points and grabbed 10 rebounds in Wednesday's 55-54 loss to Blue Valley. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Ballard was the lone Junior Blue in double figures while 6-foot-10 Schmidt scored eight points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
Lady Scots snap five-game losing streak with 50-31 win over Washington
By JUSTIN BURKHARDT
TopSports.news
Highland Park girls basketball, which was fighting a five-game losing streak entering Tuesday's home Meadowlark Conference game against Kansas City-Washington broke through with a 50-31 home win.
Junior Miluv Cosey led a balanced Highland Park attack with 12 points in Tuesday's 50-31 Meadowlark Conference win over KC-Washington. [File photo/TSN[
Zayah Kincade hit a 3-pointer to get things going for the Scots as they would get off to a 7-0 start before Washington would go on a 12-1 run to take the lead 12-8 to end the first quarter.
The Scots would come out in the second quarter and go on a 6-0 run but Scot junior Miluv Cosey would pick up her second foul of the game and have to go to the bench, which would allow the Wildcats to go on their own run to tie the contest at 16.
Senior Koralee Jones would get two baskets in a row to put her team up 20-16 and they would follow that up with another Kincade 3-pointer to go into the locker room with a 26-20 lead.
Cosey would make her return in the third quarter and score eight straight points of her team-high 12 to stretch the Highland Park lead to 34-22.
“At halftime while I was talking, Miluv really took it to heart,'' Highland Park coach Rob Brown said. "I could tell she was looking at me in my eyes. And she went on that third-quarter run where she had eight straight points, all off steals. If she keeps doing that she'll help us out a lot.”
“It was just the talk that we had during halftime, you know we came together,'' Cosey said. "He told us, we just got to stretch the lead out and I feel that's what we did. I came out with a better mindset and my confidence goes down when I miss a couple shots, but he knows how to motivate me to get out there and let it out. And that's what I feel I did.”
The Scots they would leave the third quarter with a commanding 39-26 lead and the halftime message would be enough as they would go on to pick up the 19-point victory.
