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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The two things Washburn Rural boys basketball coach Kevin Muff talked about after Friday's win over Emporia was the need to get more Junior Blues involved offensively and for Rural to play better defense.
The Junior Blues made improvement in both of those areas in Saturday's 57-43 home Centennial League victory over Manhattan.
Senior standouts Joe Berry and Jack Hutchinson combined for 30 points and the Junior Blues also got key contributions from seniors Brady Patterson and Davan Brady, who scored 9 and 7 points, respectively, as Rural shot 63.9 percent from the field.
Washburn Rural senior Joe Berry scores 2 of his game-high 19 points in Saturday's 57-43 win over Manhattan. [Photograph by Doug Walker]
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural's girls basketball team rolled to a 71-38 victory over Lawrence Saturday, completing a stretch of three lopsided wins in as many days.
And although Rural was a heavy favorite in all three home contests, coach Kevin Bordewick said he had specific goals for his team in addition to winning, which he felt the Junior Blues achieved en route to three wins by a total of 110 points.
"We said, 'We're not worried about the record, we're going to assume that they're undefeated and we've got to be ready to go,' '' Bordewick said. "One of the things that we really kind of emphasized is how we run the floor and running fastbreaks and making better decisions than what we had and I really do think that that showed up.
"I thought the way we got out and ran, I was really happy with that.This group's been really good about we're not into who scores the points, let's just get something scored and go from there, and they've all stepped up and really done that.''
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Highland Park’s boys basketball team reeled off its third straight win Friday night, rolling to a 63-37 Centennial League home victory over Hayden to climb to 6-5 on the season.
Highland Park, 5-3 in the league, is above the .500 mark for the first time this season after Friday’s win.
Highland Park trailed by 6 points early in the second quarter, but rallied for a 29-20 halftime advantage and cruised the rest of the way.
The Scots had four players crack double figures while limiting Hayden to no more than 11 points in a quarter and 17 second-half points.
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Rick Bloomquist's talented Topeka West boys basketball team is back at full strength and that could spell bad news for the Chargers' Centennial League opponents.
Topeka West has been without junior standout Elijah Brooks for all or part of six games due to a foot injury.while another junior starter, Zander Putthoff, missed part of a game with an ankle injury.
But both players are healthy again and both played key roles Friday night as Topeka West rolled to a 71-53 league win at Seaman, with Brooks scoring 21 points while Putthoff adding 14 points and hit 4 3-pointers.
“This is the first time in a long time we’ve been healthy 100 percent,” Bloomquist said. “That was as good of an amoeba defense as we’ve played in a long time here at West. Offensively, we shared the ball a lot, had great spacing and penetrated when we should have. ... It was all pretty good.”
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Washburn Rural's Jack Hutchinson scores 2 of his 23 point against Emporia. (Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN)
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural’s boys basketball team enjoyed one of its best offensive performances of the season in Friday night’s home Centennial League matchup with Emporia, shooting 57.5 percent from the field as senior standouts Jack Hutchinson and Joe Berry combined for 38 points.
But while Rural coach Kevin Muff was pleased with the Junior Blues’ 63-point output, he wasn’t necessarily happy with fact that his team allowed 55 in a 63-55 league win.
“We’ll take 63, but we’ve got to be better defensively,’’ said Muff, whose team improved to 7-3 overall and 6-1 in the league. “We can’t let teams get the ball where they want to get it and move it how they want to move it.
“I told the team tonight, we’re 10 games in. We’re over halfway done with our season, so it’s time.“
Washburn Rural, which lost two of three games in last week’s Basehor-Linwood tournament, came out hot Friday night, opening up a 19-11 first-quarter advantage after leading by 10 late in the quarter.
