By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Hayden took control in the fourth quarter to take a 42-33 Centennial League road win at Washburn Rural Friday night, wrapping up the league championship.
Hayden senior Millie Ramsey (left) scored 17 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in Friday's 42-33 Centennial League win over Washburn Rural while sophomore Maddie Vickery (right) led the Junior Blues with 12 points. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
No. 2-ranked (Class 4A) Hayden bounced back from a league loss at Manhattan on Monday while improving to 16-2 overall and 8-1 in the league while No. 5-ranked (6A) Washburn Rural fell to 13-5, 6-2 as the Wildcats finished off a season sweep over the Junior Blues.
"Monday when we played Manhattan, that was a really frustrating game,'' Hayden coach Carvel Reynoldson said. "We didn't seem to have much energy and just couldn't get over the hump. So this week in practice we just emphasized absolutel intensity defensively and on the glass and then try to get into our offense and run stuff because Manhattan was just kind of running up and down the court like we were playing a pickup game.
"Tonight we needed to get into our offense and get the ball inside and we did.''
Freshman Hailey Schmidtlein (2) scored eight points and went four for four at the free throw line in Hayden's 42-33 win over Washburn Rural. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Millie Ramsey, a 6-foot senior, posted a double-double with game-high totals of 17 points and 14 rebounds while Hailey Schmidtlein, a freshman, and senior Brylee Meier added eight points apiece for the Wildcats.
"This win was super huge,'' Ramsey said. "It was a good win and I'm proud of everybody. I'm really proud of our freshmen (Schmidtlein and Blakely Walter). They really stepped up.''
And while the Wildcats' future focus is on 4A sub-state and state, Reynoldson said that winning the league title was a big deal for Hayden, by far the smallest school in the Centennial.
"Because our enrollment has gone down and what not, there's been discussions about getting out of this league, so the fact that we stayed in it and showed toughness, this is the compilation of a lot of summers,'' Reynoldson said. "These girls have spent a lot of time together playing basketball and we kept talking about it leading up to this game that everything that we've done can lead up to a league championship, which I don't know when it's happened before.''
"It feels great and we were talking and we don't know when the last time Hayden's won one so it just feels good,'' Ramsey said. "Especially being a senior it feels amazing. I'm so happy.''
Washburn Rural never trailed throughout the first three quarters, but after Hayden forged a 22-22 tie at the end of the third quarter on two Schmidtlein free throws, Ramsey scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to give the Wildcats their first lead of the night.
Rural battled back from the five-point deficit to tie the game at 29 on a Kate Hinck hoop, but back-to-back buckets from Ramsey and Schmidtlein put Hayden front 33-29 and the Wildcats ended the game with a 7-0 run to build their biggest lead of the night.
Senior Kate Hinck had six points and grabbed 10 rebounds in Friday's 42-33 Washburn Rural loss to Hayden. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Sophomore Maddie Vickery led Rural with 12 points and also grabbed eight rebounds while Hinck had six points and grabbed 10 rebounds and Tenly Bunck also scored six points.
HAYDEN GIRLS 42, WASHBURN RURAL 33
Hayden 7 5 10 20 -- 42
Washburn Rural 10 6 6 11 -- 33
Hayden (15-2, 8-1) – Schmidtlein 2-5 4-4 8, Ramsey 7-12 3-3 17, Reid 1-6 0-0 2, Meier 2-4 3-4 8, Greco 0-7 4-4 4, Walter 1-7 1-2 3, Huscher 0-0 0-0 0, Watts 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-41 15-17 42.
Washburn Rural (13-5, 6-2) – Hinck 3-8 0-1 6, Rutherford 1-3 1-2 4, Vickery 3-12 5-6 12, Lemke 1-1 0-0 2, Bunck 2-10 1-2 6, Hirschi 0-3 0-0 0, Hayes 0-7 0-0 0, Carlgren 1-1 0-0 3. Totals 11-45 7-11 33.
3-point goals – Hayden 5 (Meier), Washburn Rural 4 (Rutherford, Vickery, Bunck, Carlgren). Total fouls – Hayden 12, Washburn Rural 20. Fouled out – Lemke. Technical fouls – none.
