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By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
The No. 6-ranked Topeka High girls basketball team keeps on rolling, remaining undefeated on the season with an 86-16 Centennial League romp past Highland Park Friday night at High.
The 5-0 Trojans went into the holiday break with an exclamation point, which is exactly what High coach Hannah Alexander wanted.
“Last game we didn’t really play our best basketball,'' Alexander said. "We didn’t run our offense great and we were very stagnant. Tonight we wanted to get back on track. We wanted to run our offense and our press much better before the break. We have a tough one coming up when we get back (Washburn Rural).”
Topeka High junior Kiki Smith led the way with 30 points as the Trojans improved to 5-0 with an 86-16 Centennial League win over Highland Park Friday night. [File photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
High junior veteran Kiki Smith came up huge for the Trojans on Friday night, scoring 30 points in the 70-point win.
“She’s been phenomenal,'' Alexander said of Smith. "She has grown up with us and has been the perfect leader on and off the floor. How she gets everyone involved is really nice.
"She’s so unselfish out there. Whether it’s assists, steals, rebounds, points, she just does what’s best for the team.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Seaman's boys basketball team bounced back from a tough Tuesday loss to Highland Park with a wire-to-wire run Friday night, ending the 2021 portion of its schedule with a 58-50 Centennial League win over Washburn Rural at Seaman.
Seaman, which lost to Highland Park on a late follow shot after a frantic comeback, took control early against Washburn Rural, opening up a 39-21 halftime advantage and leading 47-26 after three quarters.
Seaman had fallen behind by 18 points on Tuesday against Highland Park but got out of the gate with a bang Friday, leading 6-0 and 15-4 early.
"We talked about being the aggressor and kind of felt like that's what Highland Park had done to us and got us on our heels and it took us a long time to recover,'' Seaman coach Craig Cox said. "Tonight we wanted to take that role ourselves and I thought we did a good job with that, especially defensively.''
Seaman junior Kaeden Bonner (13) paced the Vikings with a game-high 17 points in Friday's 58-50 win over Washburn Rural. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The Vikings, who improved to 3-2 overall and in the league, rode their balance to Friday's win, with four players scoring 12 or more points in the win.
Junior Kaeden Bonner led the way for Seaman with a game-high 17 points while senior Ty Henry added 14 points and seniors Mateo Hyman and Gavin Wilhelm scored 12 apiece.
Seaman shot a sparking 65.7 percent from the field, with Bonner hitting seven of eight shots, Henry going six of eight and Wilhelm hitting all four of his shots, including three 3-pointers.
Seaman senior Gavin Wilhelm scored 12 points and hit three 3-pointers in the Vikings' 58-50 Centennial League win over Washburn Rural Friday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The Vikings led by as many as 25 points (47-22) in the third quarter and by 21 (49-28) early in the fourth before Washburn Rural (2-3, 2-3) ended the game with a 22-9 run as Seaman emptied its bench.
Cox said it was good for his team to end its pre-holiday slate on a positive note.
"Definitely it's good for us and lifts our spirits,'' Cox said. "Our bench is kind of short right now so those guys who are playing a lot of minutes are going to need this break to kind of re-charge their batteries and we'll work some things out.
"We need to improve our consistency and then learn how to finish games when we have a nice lead.''
Senior Quincey Kidd led the Junior Blues with 12 points while junior Jack Bachelor added nine points.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural's girls basketball team can't complain about its 5-0 start to the 2021-2022 season.
Now the key for the Junior Blues according to coach Kevin Bordewick is to keep building on that impressive beginning after wrapping up the pre-Christmas version of their schedule with a 51-34 Centennial League win at Seaman Friday night.
"I told them in (the locker room) and they all agree that our ceiling hasn't been touched yet,'' Bordewick said. "We have a really high ceiling and we'll get there, but it's going to be one day at a time and keep plugging away.
"We've just got to have our focus on the next day in practice and we've got to keep getting better.''
Washburn Rural's Jada Ingram takes the ball inside against Seaman's Ava Esser Friday night. Ingram scored a game-high 12 points as the Junior Blues improved to 5-0. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Rural led by just a point (13-12) at the end of the opening quarter, but boosted its lead to 25-18 at the half and pulled away with a 26-16 scoring edge over the second half.
Washburn Rural turned the ball over 16 times on the night, but Bordewick thought Friday's performance was another step in the right direction.
"I don't have a problem with our effort again,'' Bordewick said. "I think we play hard, but we just have to be more efficient and take care of the ball better. I thought our free throws were better (seven of 10), but we didn't get to the free throw line a whole lot.
"It was just our turnovers that were the bad taste in our mouth after this game.''
Washburn Rural sophomore Zoe Canfield (15) passes the ball inside to teammate Jada Ingram in the Junior Blues' 51-34 Centennial League win over Seaman Friday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Sophomores Jada Ingram and Zoe Canfield led a Rural balanced scoring attack with 12 and 10 points, respectively, while senior Emma Krueger added nine points and junior Brooklyn DeLeye seven.
DeLeye and Ingram also pulled down nine and seven rebounds, respectively, while Rural shot 52.5 percent from the field.
Seaman, which fell to 3-2 overall and in the Centennial League, did not have a player crack double figures, with junior Jaycee Schumann leading the Vikings with nine points and sophomore Taylin Stallbaumer adding eight points.
Freshmen Anna Becker and Ava Esser scored six points each for the Vikings.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
You don't become an All-American by sitting on the bench and star Washburn University point guard Tyler Geiman very rarely left the floor a year ago, averaging 36 minutes a game while helping leading the Ichabods to a 20-7 record, the MIAA Tournament championship and the second round of the NCAA Division II tournament.
After averaging 20.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 1.5 steals a year ago, Geiman and the Ichabods entered the 2021-2022 season with the highest of hopes, but things took a drastic turn early in the Ichabods' season-opener when the 6-foot-1 senior went down with a sprained left ankle.
But after missing the rest of the opener and WU's next seven games, Geiman is finally back in the game and determined to make up for lost time.
All-American point guard Tyler Geiman missed an extended period of time with an ankle injury but is back in action for the Ichabods, who will host Rogers State in an MIAA contest on Saturday. [File photo/TSN]
"I just came down on a guy's foot and turned it,'' Geiman said. "There's different grades of sprain and it was like a Grade 3 so I completely tore the ligament in my ankle that's normally involved with sprains.
"My freshman year I missed some games with an ankle injury, but this is probably my worst (injury) for sure.''
Geiman admitted that it was hard being on the sidelines, but said he just tried to make the best of a bad situation.
"It was definitely tough at times but I just tried to bring whatever I could to help others out,'' he said. "Also, you see the game differently from the sidelines, so I can learn some things that we can work on as a team.''
Geiman was finally able to return for Washburn's overtime loss at Central Oklahoma on Dec. 9 and is coming off a 13-point, 8-assist, 6-rebound performance in last Saturday's 72-61 win over Newman.
And every day he's back, Geiman feels a little more like his old self for the 5-5, 2-2 Ichabods, who will host Rogers State in a 6 p.m. MIAA contest on Saturday at Lee Arena.
"I would say I'm probably back to like 85 percent and working my way to get back,'' said the former Blue Valley star. "My biggest thing now is just kind of the mental aspect and getting confidence back in it and not worrying about it and just going out and playing.''
Geiman has struggled a little bit offensively in his first two games back, but is confident that will turn around.
"Shooting will come,'' Geiman said. "My teammates and coaches tell me to keep shooting so I know that will come.''
Unfortunately Geiman had plenty of company on the bench for Washburn during his rehab, with 6-9 junior post Jonny Clausing out with a foot injury and sophomore guard Tyler Nelson also missing the entire season thus far.
But Geiman said the expectations remain high for the Ichabods, picked second in the preseason MIAA polls, once they get back to full strength.
"This could be a good thing in the long run because some other guys got some experience,'' Geiman said. "It could be good.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
If you've watched Shawnee Heights' girls basketball team this season, you might have thought No. 13 was a new player for the T-Birds.
And in a way that's true because it's been a long time since anyone had seen 5-foot-9 junior Emari Doby on the court.
Emari Doby drives to the basket in Shawnee Heights' 64-55 overtime win over Topeka West Tuesday night. Doby scored a game and career-high 20 points in the win. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Doby earned varsity playing time as a freshman for Shawnee Heights, but missed her entire sophomore campaign as well as her summer season after suffering a serious knee injury in the fall of 2020.
"I tore my ACL (left leg) last October, right before we started practice and I had surgery,'' Doby said. "I was taking a showcase event to try to get more scouts and my last game I did a move and I just fell. I don't even know how to describe it.''
Doby suffered another setback several months later when it was discovered that her injury was more serious than first thought.
"They say six months (for rehab), but at my six-month mark I found that I had tore something more because I wasn't to the point where I should be,'' Doby said. "I found out I tore my LCL (lateral collateral ligament) also.''
That pushed her recovery timetable back even more and kept her out of action in the summer, but Doby is finally back on the court and playing a key role for the 2-1 T-Birds, who ended their pre-holiday slate with a 64-55 overtime win over Topeka West on Tuesday.
"At the start of the summer they suggested I didn't play because why play and get hurt again in the summer when you can just wait?'' Doby said. "So I waited until August to scrimmage and now I'm back and good.''
Like most players who have had to come back from major injuries, Doby has had to fight through the fear of getting re-injured, but feels like she's making progress in that regard.
"I feel like I didn't miss out on 10 months to go out there with fear, so I know I'm scared, but I can push that to the side,'' Doby said. "I trust my knee and it's been over a year, I'm good.''
And a little bit of apprehension is worth a ton of enjoyment being back on the court.
"It is so much fun,'' Doby said. "The girls take so much care of me. I can trip and they're like, 'Emari, Emari, are you OK?' And the coaches care so much. I'm so grateful to have them and my family cares, so I'm just in really good hands.''
Doby scored 10 points in Heights' 38-33 season-opening loss ot Spring Hill and followed that up with eight points in the T-Birds' 49-45 road win over Ottawa before turning in a breakout performance in Tuesday's comeback win over Topeka West, scoring a career-high 20 points.
Shawnee Heights junior Emari Doby has helped the T-Birds get off to a 2-1 start this season after missing the entire 2020-2021 season with an ACL injury. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
"Every day I'm doing more and more and every game I'm doing more,'' Doby said. "I'm still very critical of myself, but I think I'm getting back to my old me or better.
"I'm thankful. I made it back and I'm good.''
A look at Friday's Shawnee County games:
