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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
Senior Elijah Brooks reached the 1,000-point scoring mark for his career in Topeka West's 78-65 Centennial League road win at Manhattan Friday night.
Topeka West reached the 1,000-point mark for career scoring in the Chargers' 78-65 win at Manhattan Friday night. [File photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Topeka West improved to 4-1 on the season with Friday's victory after surviving a third-quarter Manhattan rally.
The Chargers led 48-34 at halftime, but Manhattan got back in the hunt with a 22-14 third-quarter surge.
Topeka West put Manhattan away with a 16-9 fourth quarter.
MANHATTAN GIRLS 69, TOPEKA WEST 52 -- Manhattan kept Topeka West winless on the season at 0-5 while improving to 2-3 with Friday's home 69-52 Centennial League victory.
HAYDEN GIRLS 42, JUNCTION CITY 16 -- Hayden improved to 3-1 on the season with Friday's home Centennial League win over Junction City.
Macy Smith
Senior Macy Smith scored 14 points to lead the way as the Wildcats put the Blue Jays away early on.
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By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
Highland Park took care of business on the road Friday night, improving to 5-0 with a 62-50 Centennial League win over rival Topeka High.
Senior Juan'Tario Roberts scored a game-high 23 points and reached the 1,000-point mark for his career as the Scots continued their early-season roll.
Highland Park gathers around senior Juan'Tario Roberts (middle with ball) after the Scots' 62-50 win over Topeka High Friday night. Roberts scored 23 points to eclipse the 1,000-point scoring mark for his career. [Photo by Isaac Deer/TSN]
“Obviously, it was a rivalry game,'' Highland Park coach Michael Williams said. "The game was going to be uglier than we wanted it to be. The game could’ve gone either way. With the win, our guys held it down, together. We had to stay in the zone and keep our guys packed in, which they did a good job of that.
"It took us about a quarter and a half to figure the game out. That’s the good thing about this group. Throughout the first five games, they’ve endured a lot, didn’t point fingers, we never backed down, we never shut down, and we are able to figure things out on the fly.''
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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.
