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By Rick Peterson

TopSports.news

Hayden and Rossville's boys and the Silver Lake girls got their midseason tournament week off to a good start with Tuesday night wins.

Senior Cameron Miller scored 23 points in Rossville's 63-54 win over Jefferson West Tuesday night in the Valley Falls tournament. [File photo/TSN]

Hayden's boys opened the Baldwin Invitational with a 62-39 win over Wellsville while Rossville's boys topped Jefferson West 63-54 in the first round of the Valley Falls Invitational and the top-ranked (Class 3A) Silver Lake girls rolled to a 61-28 win over Paola in the quarterfinals of the Burlington Invitational.

Hayden took control of its first game in the round-robin Baldwin event with a 23-4 first quarter and led by a commanding 43-12 halftime margin over Wellsville.

The Wildcats will play Bishop Seabury, a 64-35 first-round loser to Baldwin, at 5:30 p.m. Friday.

Rossville advanced to the Valley Falls Invitational semifinals on Friday with Tuesday's win over Jeff West as senior Cameron Miller scored 23 points, Jakoby McDonnell 16 and Jack Donovan 13 against the Tigers.

The Bulldawgs will face Christ Prep at 6 p.m. Thursday.

The undefeated Silver Lake girls rolled past Paola 61-28  to set up a 3:30 p.m. Thursday semifinal against Girard.

Silver Lake's boys dropped an 82-69 quarterfinal Burlington Invitational decision to Paol, falling to 8-3 on the season.

The Eagles will play an 8:15 p.m. consolation game on Thursday against Girard, a 53-27 first-round loser to Sabetha.

Cair Paravel Latin's girls dropped a 54-41 first-round decision to Lyndon in the Flint Hills League Tournament at Emporia's White Auditorium.

Cair Paravel led 14-8 at the end of the first quarter and 25-21 at the half before Lyndon took control with an 18-6 third quarter.

KellyAnn Chada led the Lions with 14 points while London Backman added 11 points and Karsyn Hastert 9.

CPLS will face West Franklin at 3 p.m. Friday. 

    

 

By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

No. 1-ranked Washburn University men's basketball scored 94 points Wednesday night against Northwest Missouri State, had four players crack double figures and shot 54.4 percent from the field.

But it was the Ichabods' defense that stole the show as Washburn improved to 19-0 overall and 9-0 in the MIAA with a 94-44 home MIAA win over the Bearcats in Lee Arena.

Junior Jeremiah Jones tied a Washburn school record with nine steals in Wednesday's 94-44 MIAA win over Northwest Missouri. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

Junior Jeremiah Jones tied a school record with nine steals, seven in the first half, while the Ichabods limited Northwest Missouri (9-11, 2-7) to a meager 14 first-half points as Washburn took command, 40-14. 

"Defense was great,'' Washburn coach Brett Ballard said. "I think JJ had more steals in this game than I had in my entire college career. He was great and I thought we were really connected on that end.

"I thought we did a good job of keeping everything in front and really challenging everything. Just really a team effort and we forced a lot of turnovers (26) as well. From the last time we played them we definitely played a better, more complete game.''

"We came out and we knew if we pressured them early and we trapped them and we contained the ball and kept them out of the paint we knew they weren't going to be able to score,'' Jones said. "Their point guard, No. 4 (Royce Williams) is really, really good and me putting pressure on him throughout the whole game and taking him out of his game, he wasn't confident at all.'' 

The Ichabods controlled the game from the opening tip and never looked back en route to its 24th straight win at home, tying for the second-longest streak in program history, and Washburn now owns the longest winning streak in the nation at 19 with Daemen's 79-61 loss to Gannon.

Washburn jumped out to a 20-8 lead at the midway point of the first half and would turn a 24-12 advantage into a 26-point halftime lead, closing the final seven minutes of the half on an 18-2 run while holding the Bearcats to one of 10 shooting, including zero of seven from 3-point range.

Overall, the Ichabods shot 50 percent (15 of 30) in the opening half while the Bearcats were limited to six of 24 from the field.

In the second half, Washburn doubled up the Bearcats at 56-28 with 13:38 to go and then went on a 20-3 run over the next 5:06 of the game, moving the lead to 74-31 with 8:53 to play.

From that point on, the Ichabods outscored Northwest Missouri 20-13, rolling to the 50-point win.

Sophomore Dillon Claussen scored a game-high 18 points, going 10 of 10 at the free throw line, in Wednesday's 94-44 MIAA win over Northwest Missouri. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

Sophomore Dillon Claussen paced Washburn with a game-high 18 points on a 4-of-5 shooting night from the field while going a perfect 10 for 10 at the free-throw line.

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By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

Washburn University women's basketball didn't have a great offensive night Wednesday against Northwest Missouri, shooting 31.5 percent while scoring just 45 points.

But thanks to an outstanding defensive effort, that was enough for the Ichabods to stretch their winning streak to three games with a 45-38 MIAA win over the Bearcats at Lee Arena.

Senior Payton Sterk scored a game-high 16 points in Wednesday's 45-38 Washburn home MIAA win over Northwest Missouri. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

"I think that's a credit to both teams,'' Washburn coach Lora Westling said of the low-scoring contest. "Both teams are just not going to give you what you want. We both have a couple of things we do really well and we're both not going to give it to the other one, so you just hope that you get enough breaks and enough toughness plays to find a way and that's why I'm proud of my players because they did tonight.'' 

Playing at home for the first time in almost two weeks, Washburn improved to 13-5 overall and 6-3 in the MIAA while avenging an earlier double-overtime loss to Northwest.

"You don't ever want to get swept in league and they're a good team and they're going to get some people, so we really needed to get this one back to make sure we didn't get swept and we're thankful for home court,'' Westling said.

Washburn trailed Northwest Missouri (10-9, 3-6) 16-9 at the end of the opening quarter.   

The Bearcats still held a 21-15 advantage with 6:27 left in the opening half, but the Ichabods held Northwest scorelss for the remainder of the second quarter and finished the half on a 9-0 run to take a 24-21 lead into the locker room at the break.  

Northwest Missouri scored five points in the first two minutes of the second half to go in front, but were held to just four points the rest of the quarter.

A pair of jumpers by senior Payton Sterk put Washburn in front by four points before the Bearcats scored the final four to tie the game at 30 going to the fourth.  

A pair of 3-pointers from seniors Aniah Wayne and Gavi Giovannetti opened the fourth quarter for Washburn, with the second trey putting the Ichabods in front, 36-35. 

Northwest Missouri knocked down a 3-pointer to tie the game at 38 with 5:51 left but once again the Bearcats were held scoreless for more than five minutes.

Sterk knocked down what would be the go-ahead bucket with 3:18 remaining to start a 7-0 finish that finished off Washburn's seven-point win.  

Washburn won despite shooting hitting just 17 of 54 shots from the floor and 3 of 10 attempts from 3-point range as the Ichabod defense limited the Bearcats to 27.5 percent shooting while going 5 of 19 from behind the arc.  

Rebounding also went in favor of the Ichabods, 42-33, while Washburn held the visitors to zero fast break points and just five second-chance points.

Senior Yibari Nwidadah recorded a double-double with 13 points and 16 rebounds in Wednesday's 45-38 MIAA win over Northwest Missouri. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]  

Ichabod senior Yibari Nwidadah tied her career-high with 16 rebounds while scoring 13 points.

"I just go into pursuit,'' Nwidadah said of her big rebounding night. "I feel like we had really great perimeter defense and not letting their two shooters get hot. Their shots created long rebounds so I was just going to get it.

"We learned from (the earlier loss) and we executed better and that was our goal. We talk a lot about holding teams under 60, so we did a really good job there, and we take pride (in defense) because it fuels our offense. We just put a lot of energy into our defense.'' 

Sterk scored a game-high 16 points on seven of 13 shooting from the field.

Normally a shooting guard, Sterk saw a lot of time Wednesday night running the WU offense from the point guard position.

"Good for Payton for stepping up,'' Westling said. "She just wants to win. That's the thing about Payton, she'd play post if I asked her to.'' 

Sterk said she played the point earlier in her career, so Wednesday's stint wasn't completely foreign for her.

"I haven't done it in awhile, but it was good,'' Sterk said. "It's a little nerve-wracking at first once I get back into it, but it seemed to work.''

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