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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
The second of two midseason tournament weeks for Shawnee County prep basketball teams is on tap this week, with eight county girls teams set to compete in five tournaments.
Following is a tournament by tournament look at this week's events involving county teams:
CAPITAL CITY CLASSIC
At Topeka High
Host Topeka High will be joined by city schools Seaman and Highland Park in the Capital City Classic Thursday through Saturday, along with Blue Valley Southwest, Maize, Shawnee Mission East, Wichita Heights and Shawnee Mission North.
Highland Park will open its tournament bid at 6 p.m. Thursday against Wichita Heights in Topeka High's main gym, followed by Topeka High against Blue Valley Southwest at 7:30 p.m. in the main gym.
Seaman will take on Shawnee Mission North in a 7:30 first-round game Thursday in High's auxiliary gym, following a 6 o'clock contest between Maize and Shawnee Mission East.
Junior Kiki Smith (right), who surpassed the 1,000-point scoring milestone last week, will help lead 9-0 Topeka High into this week's Capital City Classic at High. [Submitted]
Topeka High enters the tournament with a perfect 9-0 record after a 59-33 win over Hayden while Seaman is 6-3 and Highland Park 1-10.
Seaman is coming off a 49-18 win over Topeka West while Highland Park dropped a 65-33 decision to Hayden in its most recent game.
The Topeka High-Blue Valley Southwest and Maize-Shawnee Mission East winners will square off in Friday's first semifinal at 6 p.m. while the winners of the Highland Park-Wichita Heights and Seaman-Shawnee Mission North first-round games will clash in the second semifinal at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Both of those games will be played in the main gym.
The place games will be played on Saturday, capped by the championship game at approximately 2:30 p.m.
LADY FIREBIRDS WINTER CLASSIC
At Free State
City schools Topeka West and Washburn Rural will compete in the Lady Firebirds Winter Classic Thursday through Saturday at Lawrence Free State.
Washburn Rural sophomore Zoe Canfield is coming off a 20-point game with six 3-pointers against Emporia heading into this week's Lady Firebirds Winter Classic. [Submitted]
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Seaman captured its first girls wrestling team championship in school history Saturday in Council Grove, one of three Shawnee County girls teams to win team championships on the weekend.
Seaman, in its second season of girls wrestling, won the Council Grove event by a 181.5-81.5 margin over Santa Fe Trail, while Washburn Rural won the Rock Creek Invitational by a 204-121 count over Great Bend while Shawnee Heights took team honors Gerald Sadowski Girls Invitational at Holton by a 153-147 margin over Gardner-Edgerton.
Seaman's girls wrestling team poses for a team picture after winning the first team title in girls program history in the Council Grove tournament. [Twitter]
Seaman produced five champions and two second-place finishers en route to its team championship.
The Vikings got gold-medal performances from Taylie Heston at 109 pounds, Madison Murray at 115, Jenna Best at 120, Rylee Murray at 126 and Koti Best at 132 while Kaidence Heston (138) and Journey Jones (143) posted runner-up finishes.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Nuria Barrientos
NURIA BARRIENTOS, Washburn University
Barrientos, a 5-foot-11 senior from Barcelona, Spain, scored 15 points and grabbed 14 rebounds as Washburn's women's basketball team capped a 2-0 week with a 72-67 MIAA win over rival Emporia State on Saturday at Lee Arena.
Kaeden Bonner
KAEDEN BONNER, Seaman
A 6-1 junior, Bonner connected on eight 3-pointers and scored 24 points for Seaman's boys basketball team in Saturday's 72-68 loss to host McPherson in the third-place game of the McPherson Invitational. Bonner scored 51 points in Seaman's three tournament games.
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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
Cair Paravel Latin had to put in extra work, but the end result was the boys championship in the McLouth Invitational.
The Lions were forced to overtime in Saturday's championship game before taking a 73-71 victory over Pleasant Ridge.
Cair Paravel's boys basketball team posed for a team picture with the championship trophy after winning the McLouth Invitational with a 73-71 overtime win over Pleasant Ridge on Saturday. [Photo by Jan Pabitzky/Special to TSN]
Cair Paravel, which improved to 8-2, rode the one-two punch of seniors Noah Hastert and Zach Clark combining for 50 points while Ethan Everhart also cracked double figures for the Lions, finishing with 11 points.
Saturday's game was tight throughout, with the Lions leading 15-14 at the end of the opening quarter before Pleasant Ridge knotted the game at halftime, 31-31.
Cair Paravel led 49-47 at the end of the third quarter before Pleasant Ridge forced overtime with a 17-15 fourth quarter.
The Lions outscored the Rams 9-7 in the extra session to pull out the win.
Pleasant Ridge got 15 points from senior Justin Johnston while seniors Braeden Howard and Devin Stutz added 14 points and senior Walker Adams 12.
McPHERSON BOYS 72, SEAMAN 68 -- Seaman junior Kaeden Bonner scored 24 points on eight 3-pointers, but host McPherson held on for a 72-68 win in the third-place game of the McPherson Invitational.
Senior Ty Henry added 14 points and junior Aron Davis 12 for the Vikings, who fell to 6-4 on the season.
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By KYLE MANTHE
The Washburn Review
Washburn men’s basketball faced off with Emporia State for the 215th time in program history on Saturday in a game that made every 10th of a second count.
After scoring eight points in the first 39 minutes, 59 seconds of the game, junior Jalen Lewis came through for the Ichabods with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to give the Ichabods a 68-65 MIAA victory at Lee Arena.
“(I) just trust in the work that I put in, and trust that my teammates are going to find me,” Lewis said. “Just to see their reaction, we try to play hard for the fans and all the city of Topeka so to do that at home against a rival is huge.”
Jalen Lewis (20) hit a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Washburn a 68-65 MIAA win over rival Emporia State Saturday at Lee Arena. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The rivalry win gave Washburn five wins in its last six games and moved the Ichabods to 11-7 on the year and 8-4 in conference play.
“I think we have grown. We went through a lot of adversity earlier, and this last month these guys have been terrific,” said Washburn coach Brett Ballard. “They got a really good team, so it was a good win for us, a rivalry win, so those are always a little bit sweeter.”
The beginning of the game was evenly matched, with the two teams trading the lead five times in the first seven minutes. The Ichabods were sharp from outside early on, hitting four of seven 3-pointers in the first 10 minutes, including back-to-back treys from senior Tyler Geiman.
Inside of nine minutes Washburn’s defense tightened, allowing only two points from 9:24 to 4:23. In that time the lead grew to double-digits after a third 3-pointer from Geiman.
“I thought our defense was as good as it has been all year, we were really locked in, challenged everything and competed. They got a really tough offensive team, they are tough to guard and I thought our guys were just relentless with our effort,” Ballard said.
The lead remained at or above 10 and grew to as many as 12 after two free throws by sophomore guard Connor Deffebaugh who had seven first half points. Just before the halftime buzzer Emporia State cut the lead to single-digits after senior Jumah’Ri Turner hit a 3-pointer for three of his 16 first-half points to make it a 35-28 game at the break.
“Defensively we definitely locked in … having to guard two really good players especially offensively, two guys who can go out and score 20 each night, we knew that would be big challenge but we came and locked in defensively,” Lewis said of Washburn holding Emporia State to 32-percent shooting in the first half and 35 percent in the game.
The first-half lead slowly went away as the Ichabods started the second half scoring only four points in the first six minutes of the half.
The Hornets would come all the way back to tie the game after a 3-pointer by senior Brendan Van Dyke with 12:52 to go.
Inside of 10 minutes Washburn had some success going inside to junior Jonny Clausing who scored two baskets over a two-minute stretch and went to the line twice. The lead was erased just as quickly after seven straight points from Turner, part of his game-high 29, gave the Hornets the lead.
Just like the first half, the Ichabods quickly battled back to retake the lead as the game moved into the final five minutes, which featured tough shot-making on both sides.
Just in the last five minutes the lead changed hands eight times. For Washburn, freshman Michael Keegan knocked down a 3-pointer and converted an up and under layup that retook the lead each time.
Washburn senior guard Tyler Geiman dives on the floor for a loose ball in Saturday's 68-65 MIAA win over rival Emporia State at Lee Arena. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Under two minutes it was Geiman who took over for the Ichabods, hitting a jump shot to give them a 64-63 lead. After a stop on the next possession Geiman ran the clock down before getting fouled, knocking down one to make it a two-point game with 26 seconds left.
Emporia State capitalized with senior Tray Buchanan able to get inside and score a layup to tie the game with 13 seconds left.
With no timeouts available Geiman brough the ball down into the lane before getting stuck and kicking it out to Lewis who took one dribble left and released the ball with .01 left on the clock and sunk the shot and the Hornets and gave Washburn the 68-65 victory.
