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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University men's basketball has a tough stretch of four straight road games on the horizon, but it is a confident group of Ichabods that hits the road, starting with a 7:30 p.m. MIAA contest at Fort Hays State on Thursday night.
Sophomore Sam Ungashick leads a balanced Washburn offensive attack with a 14.4 scoring average. [File photo/TSN]
Washburn (12-5 overall, 8-3 MIAA) has won three games in a row and seven of its last eight after an 81-74 win over Pittsburg State last Saturday in Lee Arena, rallying from a 10-point deficit midway through the first half.
"I feel really good about this team,'' Washburn junior Michael Keegan said. "We're really starting to click and playing well together.''
Washburn coach Brett Ballard agreed.
"We're playing well and a young team coming together,'' Ballard said. "I think it's encouraging on both ends. We're leading the conference in scoring but also leading the conference in rebound margin and second in field goal percentage defense, so I think there's balance there.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Fresh off a win over nationally-ranked Pittsburg State, Washburn women's basketball is set to take on another ranked opponent, with the Ichabods starting a four-game road swing on Thursday against No. 19 Fort Hays State at 5:30 p.m.
Senior Aubree Dewey is averaging a team-high 16.1 points for the 11-6 Washburn women's basketball team. [File photo/TSN]
Washburn's 75-62 home win over No. 25 Pittsburg State snapped a three-game Ichabod losing streak.
"We had had two losses to really great teams and then we had a quote-unquote bad loss that makes you question yourself and our players did a great job of kind of staying the course through those hiccups that happen in a season, putting their foot down and really competed well Saturday,'' Washburn coach Lora Westling said.
"I think we still have a lot of gaps where we want to play better basketball but they competed and decided that we weren't going to take it anymore.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Shawnee Heights bowler Henry Schattilly turned in a very solid 2023 season as as a freshman, narrowly missing a trip to the Class 5A-1A state tournament.
Henry Schattilly
But Schattilly has taken a big step forward this winter, including the individual championship in Wednesday's five-school Shawnee Heights meet at Gage Bowl.
Schattilly recorded a season best 673 series on Wednesday, edging Piper's Darron Spak by a single pin, and Schattilly has now recorded four straight 600-plus series to open the season.
"I've been doing way better than I did last year,'' Schattilly said. "I've gone from a 197 average to so far 207 out of all our meets this year. For this being just my third year of bowling, it's amazing.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
As is the case with most new business ventures, Kerry Darting didn't know what to expect when he and his father, Hall of Fame coach Ken Darting, launched the Darting Basketball Academy a decade ago.
Kerry Darting instructs young players during a Darting Basketball Academy event. DBA will mark its 10th season in 2024. [File photo/TSN]
But looking back to those beginnings, Kerry Darting, a former college player and Division I coach, couldn't get be happier with how DBA has been able to progress.
"I think it's definitely better than I hoped,'' Darting said. "The support of Topeka has been unbelievable. When I got out of college coaching I knew that I still wanted to be involved in the game and skill development was always what I loved, even as a kid. So when I decided to do it we had a bunch of the coaches I worked for wanted me to go different places, whether it be Texas or Michigan or North Carolina, but I always knew I wanted to come back to Topeka to do it.
"A lot of people thought I was crazy to do that, but coming back and doing it, just the support of the city's been unbelievable and the fact that we get to do it here with a lot of people that I know in the city where I grew up has been really fun for me.''
DBA membership enrollment for 2024 opened earlier this month and will be open until it sells out all the available slots.
"Right now you're registering to become a member and if you're a Darting Basketball member you get the 18-week skills academy and then discounted pricing on all our other events, whether its spring leagues, 3 on 3 leagues, camps and all of that,'' Darting said. "We've got shooting labs where the kids can come in and work on shooting. We have day camps so any day there's no school or a holiday we'll have day camps kids can come to, we have private workouts and we're trying to do a lot of game play stuff.
"We've concentrated so much on skills, which is obviously very important, but in the last couple of years we've put in a fall league, a spring league, a summer 3 on 3 league and we're going to work on putting together some teams at the end of July to travel around and play in some tournaments.''
Darting said the DBA staff continues to look for new things it can try to continue to make the program better.
"That is what's so fun about it,'' Darting said. "You've got to see what works, what the parents want. We always get parents asking us questions about what they think their kid needs, and really if you get one parent asking it's usually a few of them, so it's just fun to add things that we think are going to help the kids and develop their basketball skills.''
Darting is also planning on adding an international flavor to DBA this summer.
"We're planning on bringing in 20 to 25 international kids who will come and play on an international AAU team, so they'll be here in Topeka for those three weeks that the college coaches can be out recruiting,'' Darting said. "They'll train with us and practice with us during the week and then on the weekends, those three weekends in July when they can get out and play, they're going to travel around and play in some tournaments.''
Darting said that one of his most rewarding experiences, particularly at this time of year, is going to high school games and seeing athletes who have attended DBA since they were in third and fourth grade starring for their high school teams.
"That's what it's all about for me,'' Darting said. "It's really fun to watch them have success because you get to see kind of behind the scenes how much work they put into it and how much they love it.''
For more information on Darting Basketball Academy email Darting at
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By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
Seaman rode hot shooting to runs in the second and third quarters at Topeka High en route to a 69-59 road win over the Trojans Wednesday.
Sophomore Landon Wiltz scored 19 points with five 3-pointers in Seaman's 69-59 win at Topeka High on Wednesday. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Leading 13-11 after the first period, Seaman started the second quarter with a 12-0 run to extend its lead to 25-11 in less than three minutes.
The Trojans’ hope for a comeback in the third period was squelched when Seaman dropped six of its first seven shots out of the break – five of those from behind the arc by senior Holden Finley and sophomore Landon Wiltz. The Vikings stretched the lead to 59-37 to close the third period.
“Something we talked about at halftime was that we had a nice lead, and your natural instinct could be to let up,” Seaman coach Craig Cox said. “Fortunately, we didn’t, and we hit some shots there. (Topeka High) had a couple of opportunities, but we were able to knock down some shots to put ourselves in a good position.”
