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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural junior point guard Jack Bachelor probably can't count on shooting the ball every night like he did Tuesday against Topeka High, but he can hope.
Unofficially, Bachelor hit all nine of his shots from the field, including seven 3-pointers, on the way to a career-high 28 points as the Junior Blues improved to 3-3 overall and in the Centennial League with a 56-51 home win over the Trojans.
"I was feeling good in warmups and my teammates were getting me the ball,'' Bachelor said. "We were running the plays good and I've been working throughout the break we had so I came ready to play and shot the ball tonight.''
Junior Jack Bachelor went nine of nine from the field with seven 3-pointers and 28 points as Washburn Rural topped Topeka High Tuesday night, 56-51. [File photo/TSN]
Senior Quincey Kidd scored 18 points, with three 3-pointers, as Washburn Rural improved to 3-3 with a 56-51 win over Topeka High Tuesday night. [File photo/TSN]
Bachelor led the way as Washburn Rural canned 12 3-pointers as a team, with senior Quincey Kidd adding three treys as part of an 18-point performance and sophomore Griffin Durst scoring six points on a pair of 3-pointers.
Bachelor and Kidd combined for three 3s in the opening quarter as Washburn Rural jumped out to a 14-6 lead and the Junior Blues canned another five treys to lead by as many as 15 points en route to a 31-19 halftime advantage.
"We were just looking for the open man and doing what was working for us,'' Bachelor said.
Rural coach Kevin Muff agreed.
"We've got to continue to get better, but for the most part we were good about getting it swung a couple of times and catching in a rhythm,'' Muff said. "I think rhythm shots are crucial for good outside shooters and we need Quincey to shoot it like that and we need Jack to shoot it because they're good shooters.''
Washburn Rural led by 15 again in the third quarter before taking a 44-33 advantage into the fourth quarter, but Topeka High, which hit 10 3-pointers on the night, made things interesting down the stretch, getting as close as four on two occasions.
Sophomore Bryson Thrasher scored all of his team-high 15 points on five 3s for Topeka High while junior Mason Gomez had nine points on three 3s and sophomore BJ Canady and senior Max Ambrose added seven points apiece.
Topeka High fell to 1-6 overall and 1-5 in the Centennial League with Tuesday's loss, but coach Ty Baumgardner saw a lot of positive things against Rural that his Trojans can build off of.
"We saw some great things, some great things,'' Baumgardner said. "Some guys stepped up. We threw some freshmen in there tonight and they did not hurt us one bit. That second half I couldn't be more proud of them.''
Both Topeka High and Washburn Rural were short-handed Tuesday night, with the Trojans playing without leading scorer Matt Flenoy as well as Isaiah Lyons and Ossie Morales while the Junior Blues were missing post Brock Howard and Jacob Hirschi.
Washburn Rural will be off Friday night while Toeka High will host league foe Seaman.
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By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
Silver Lake's girls basketball team continued its undefeated start Tuesday night, taking a 60-35 home victory over rival Rossville.
Silver Lake, now 5-0, has outscored the opposition 279-191 in the young season.
Rossville was unable to get a lead over Silver Lake at any point during the four quarters.
Silver Lake started out quick with an 8-2 run shortly after tipoff. Rossville called a quick timeout, but Silver Lake took that opportunity to run with it.
In the first quarter, Silver Lake’s McKinley Kruger and Makenzie McDaniel took the court by storm.
M. Kruger’s ability to swipe the ball and find open teammates was smooth early. Standing at 6-foot-1 McDaniel was able to allow herself to get open opportunities in the paint. M. Kruger & McDaniel had over 53 percent of the Eagles' points in the first quarter.
“Our concern coming into tonight’s game was to limit Rossville in transition,'' Silver Lake coach Kyle Porter said. "We wanted to play more of a half-court game and play through the paint. Early on we played their (Rossville) game. We gave them too many opportunities that benefitted them at times and we needed to get that fixed.''
In the second quarter, the Lady Eagles ran away with the game, outscoring the Bulldawgs 21-9. The 3-point shots fell in at a much bigger clip. Kruger, Mariah Farmer and Ella Bolan added four 3-point shots.
“In transition there are times where you are going to get wide open 3s and if you shoot them you have to knock them down,'' Porter said. "We like to play a touch-paint first-style before we take a 3-point shot, but we were confident that our girls had the ability to make those shots in the second (quarter) especially, Mariah Farmer who had a number of them tonight.''
Going into halftime, the Lady Eagles held an eye-opening 38-19 lead over a tough Rossville team.
The Lady Eagles did not get cursed by the halftime cold spell going into the third quarter.
Silver Lake was in charge of a 20-4 run. Crisp shooting play and solid post play from the three-headed monster of M. Kruger, McDaniel, and Farmer made it difficult for Rossville to keep up.
The Silver Lake coaching staff does not want the Lady Eagles to get over-confident heading into Friday night’s matchup with Rock Creek, also 5-0.
“We take every game and learn from it. We are going to come back tomorrow ready to improve. Rock Creek is a team that is very heavy in post play. They’re going to be a tough matchup for us. We have to get better at a lot of little things, like getting better in the paint, guard on the ball better, we have to rotate better, we have to block out better, and that all starts tomorrow,” said Porter.
SILVER LAKE GIRLS 60, ROSSVILLE 35
Silver Lake 17 21 20 2 – 60
Rossville 10 9 4 12 – 35
Rossville (4-2) – Mitchell 4 2-4 14, Perine 1 5-7 7, Douglas 1 2-3 5, Haehn 2 0-0 5, Gillum 1 0-0 2, Kel. Foster 0 2-2 2.
Silver Lake (5-0) – M. Kruger 5 3-4 15, McDaniel 6 2-4 13, Farmer 5 0-0 12, Ross 4 0-0 8, Bolan 2 0-0 5, Deiter 2 0-0 4, K. Kruger 1 0-0 3.
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By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
The Silver Lake-Rossville rivalry is a deep one that runs through the nearby towns and Silver Lake's boys basketball team played with an extra chip on its shoulder Tuesday night.
“This rivalry is huge, as you know from football,'' Silver Lake coach Johnny Roberts said after his Eagles held on for a 48-40 home win over the Bulldawgs. "They got us in football twice, we want to get them back in basketball.''
Forty-eight points doesn't necessarily light up the scoreboard, but it got the job done for the Eagles on Tuesday, with Silver Lake improving to 3-2 on the season.
“It was a gritty win,'' Roberts said. "Tonight is exactly what we needed. Wins are wins. I was proud of our guys tonight for finding ways to execute down the stretch.''
The Silver Lake bench was the catalyst in the first quarter for the Eagles, with Brogan Renfro, Tanner Martin and Dylan VandeVelde scoring 10 of the Eagles' first 12 points.
“I have a lot of confidence in them (Silver Lake’s bench),'' Roberts said. "I have confidence in all of our guys. We played 12 guys tonight and that is a good sign of how much confidence we have in our team. We need everyone to be ready in any part of the game.''
Renfro was a spark that the Eagles relied on heavily throughout the game, finishing with a team-high 14 points. Renfro attacked the paint consistently when he got the basketball in his hands.
“Brogan (Renfro) didn’t play the first four games,'' Roberts said. "We’ve been missing him with his energy of play and effort. I told him before the game that, 'Tonight is your night. It’s your night. It’s your game to get to the rim,' and he took that opportunity and ran with it.''.
Rossville’s Kade Perine, who had 22 points on the night, kept the Dawgs close with 10 points of his own in the first half.
While Perine had success in the first half, so did the Eagles. Brody Dieter and Troy Heiman were leading the way in the second quarter with half of the team’s points.
Silver Lake would hold a close 24-17 lead over Rossville at halftime.
In the second half, Rossville would chip away at Silver Lake’s lead, little by little. Contributions from Perine, Brody Lietz and Francesco Patrizi made things very interesting for the Bulldawgs.
While Rossville never took a lead throughout the game, it was able to cut the deficit to just three points in the fourth quarter.
Clutch shots made by Kamryn Kaniper and late free throws by Heiman sealed the deal for the Eagles down the stretch.
Silver Lake was happy with Tuesday night’s performance against the Bulldawgs, but Roberts' Eagles are well aware of a tough game coming up on Friday.
“We have another tough team (Rock Creek) coming up,'' Roberts said. "Rossville is a hard-nosed and rugged team, all the credit to them. We respect them (Rossville). Rock Creek will be similar. Some people are saying Rock Creek (0-5) is down this year, but we don’t look at it that way. We don’t look at them as being down at all. They lost a lot of key players that made a run at state last year, but they will be tough. There are no off nights in this league. No off nights whatsoever. We will do the things that we do well and will look forward to Friday night,” said Roberts.
SILVER LAKE BOYS 48, ROSSVILLE 40
Rossville (1-5) 7 10 13 10 – 40
Silver Lake (3-2) 12 12 11 13 – 48
Rossville (1-4) – Perine 9 1-2 22, Garcia 2 0-0 5, Lietz 2 0-1 4, Patrizi 2 0-2 4, Badura 0 3-4 3, Bush 1 0-0 2.
Silver Lake (3-2) – Renfro 7 0-0 14, Dieter 4 2-4 10, Kaniper 3 0-0 6, Heiman 2 2-2 6, Kaff 1 0-0 3, Stithem 1 1-1 3, VandeVelde 1 0-0 2, Martin 1 0-0 2, Mountain 1 0-0 2.
3-point goals – Silver Lake 1 (Kaff), Rossville 4 (Perine 3, Garcia). Fouls – Silver Lake 13, Rossville 11.
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By KYLE MANTHE
The Washburn Review
Coming off of the winter break the Topeka West girls basketball was looking for its first win of the season after building some positive momentum the previous two games.
That momentum was halted Tuesday night as the previously-winless Junction City Blue Jays were able to come from behind in the fourth quarter to keep the Chargers without a win.
“It was frustrating because we haven’t been in the situation a lot but we've got to learn how to play with a lead, and we had the lead, we had opportunities, we just didn’t finish the game,” said Topeka West coach Jeff Skar.
The 32-30 loss moved Topeka West to 0-6 on the year. As disappointing as it was for one side, it was equally important for Junction City, which moved to 1-4 on the year and hope to build momentum.
“The girls worked extremely hard over break. We had some COVID stuff, we had some sickness and the girls that were there worked extremely hard. We learned some stuff about ourselves as a team, we’re not fantastic, but to get a win feels really good,” said Junction City coach Tim Testa.
Early on the Blue Jays struggled to hold onto the ball, turning it over on the first three possessions, but were able to pull ahead early with a 3-pointer by sophomore Amyah O’Neal.
Sophomore Rebecca Bearman (45) led Topeka West with 10 points in Tuesday's 32-30 Centennial League loss to Junction City. [File photo/TSN]
Most of the Chargers' offense ran through sophomore post Rebecca Bearman, who scored three of West’s seven first-quarter points as West trailed by two.
The second quarter was highlighted by the Chargers' defense, as they held Junction City to only four points. On the other end four field goals by four players allowed them to pull ahead and take a 17-13 lead into halftime.
“Siani Sanchez, our sophomore guard, created havoc, she was active all night, created a whole bunch of turnovers with her quick hands and athletic ability. She just created a bunch of deflections and we were able to get some steals off of that,” Skar said.
Topeka West got a boost right away in the third quarter as Sanchez scored five points in the first two minutes, extending the Charger lead to nine points.
The Chargers' stout defense started to break late in the quarter as the Blue Jays scored on four straight possessions to pull within two. The stretch was capped off by sophomore Sara Rexrode, who had two baskets in the post.
Another inside basket, this time from junior Sophia Holloway, tied the game at 24 heading into the fourth.
“We are known for turnovers, I think we average 36 a game right now, which speaks to our record, but I thought the guards did a little bit better of just giving it to the bigs,” Testa said.
Topeka West got a strong start to the final frame, taking a five-point lead after a 3-pointer by sophomore Zoe Clark.
Once again Junction City’s offense came alive late, going on a 7-1 run to take the lead on another basket by Holloway with 1:33 left.
The Chargers would have opportunities late, but missed shots and turnovers spoiled the comeback as the Bluejays escaped with the victory.
Topeka West was led by Bearman, who finished with 10 points, while Sanchez added eight including two 3-pointers.
“We have had a tough time getting the whole group in practice, we were missing a couple of key players tonight … our lack of depth tonight hurt us because we wore down there at the end,” Skar said.
Rexrode paced Junction City with 12 points and Holloway and junior Ava DeGuzman each added five.
Topeka West will play again Friday, as they stay at home to take on Hayden.
JUNCTION CITY GIRLS 32,TOPEKA WEST 30
Junction City 9 4 9 8 -- 32
Topeka West 7 10 7 6 -- 30
Topeka West (0-6, 0-1) – Hopper 0-0 0-0 0, Foy 0-0 1-2 1, Sanchez 3-8 0-0 8, Foster 0-0 0-0 0, Duncan 0-3 1-2 1, Benson 1-9, 1-2 3, Clark 2-10 1-3 6, Bearman 3-11 4-8 10. Totals 9-31 7-17 30.
Junction City (1-4) – DeGuzman 2-5 1-2 5, Jeter 1-6 0-0 3, Hatcher 0-2 0-0 0, Exantus 0-0 0-0 0, Nabus 1-1 2-2 4, Harris 0-1 0-0 0, O’Neal 1-3 0-0 3, Holloway 2-3 1-2 5, Rexrode 6-12 0-3 12. Totals 13-33 9-4 32.
3-point goals – Topeka West 3 (Sanchez 2, Clark 1), Junction City 2 (Jeter 1, O’Neal 1). Total fouls – Topeka West 15, Junction City 14. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Topeka High's girls basketball team went from a 12-0 lead three minutes into Tuesday night's game at Washburn Rural to staring at an eight-point halftime deficit.
But the sixth-ranked (Class 6A) Trojans used a dominating third quarter to regain the lead and held off the second-ranked Junior Blues the rest of the way for a 45-39 Centennial League victory, improving to 6-0 overall and in the league.
Senior Tae Thomas, who scored a game-high 17 points to lead Topeka High, said the Trojans maintained a positive attitude at the half despite being outscored 18-2 in the second quarter to fall into an eight-point hole..
"It was more about realizing what we could do better ourselves in that game, what we needed to fix and what we needed to adjust,'' Thomas said. "I think that really helped us out a lot going into the second half.
"The motivation was defnitely there and coming together as a team helped us out a lot.''
Topeka High junior Kiki Smith takes the ball downcourt Tuesday night against Washburn Rural. Smith scored 11 points to help the Trojans improve to 6-0 with a 45-39 win. [Submitted]
High junior Kiki Smith and Thomas opened the game with back-to-back 3-pointers and then junior Faith Shields hit a 3 and converted a four-point play to put the Trojans up 10-0 just 2:50 into the contest and Thomas scored again to give High a 12-0 advantage at the 4:42 mark.
Rural pulled within 15-7 at the end of the quarter and then held the Trojans to just two points in the second quarter to open up a 25-17 halftime advantage.
The Junior Blues appeared to be in control at that point, but Topeka High ran off the first 10 points of the third quarter to take a 27-25 lead on a Smith hoop before junior Brooklyn DeLeye scored Rural's first points of the second half at the 1:43 mark to tie the game at 27-all.
Thomas canned her second 3-pointer of the night to put High in front 30-27 at the start of the fourth quarter and Washburn Rural got no closer than three the rest of the way.
Junior Adisyn Caryl, Thomas, Shields and senior DayShauna Wiley combined to hit seven three throws over the final 53.3 seconds to protect the Trojans' lead as High went 13 of 18 from the line, helping offset a 26-percent shooting night from the floor.
Topeka High coach Hannah Alexander was also extremely pleased with the Trojans' defense from start to finish.
"That's what we've kind of been saying this whole Christmas break, that we've got to tighten up our defense because we saw we were kind of letting teams score a little too much on us,'' Alexander said.
Smith joined Thomas in double figures for Topeka High with 11 points while Shields had eight points and Caryl six.
Washburn Rural shot 34.1 percent from the field and also hurt itself with a nine of 20 performance at the free throw line and 20 turnovers.
Junior Brooklyn DeLeye scored 14 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to pace Washburn Rural in Tuesday's 45-39 loss to Topeka High. [Submitted]
DeLeye led Washburn Rural with 14 points and 13 rebounds while sophomore Zoe Canfield was next in line for the Junior Blues with seven points and senior Campbell Bagshaw had six off the bench.
"I'm disappointed in how we competed,'' Washburn Rural coach Kevin Bordewick said. "I can't even imagine how many turnovers we had. I can't imagine how many two-foot shots or layups we had and I just saw we were nine out of 20 from the free throw line and you're going to try and beat a team like THigh. That just won't work.''
Washburn Rural beat Topeka High to win the 2019 Class 6A state championship but with Tuesday's win the Trojans have now won the last six meetings with the Junior Blues.
"Every time we've played Rural the last few years it's been so exciting,'' Alexander said.
