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By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
Despite a halting start to the new year, with little time spent in practice, the Rossville girls basketball team was sharp enough on defense to throttle visiting Valley Heights Thursday, 66-41.
Rossville sophomore Rylee Dick led the Bulldawgs with 18 points in Thursday's 66-41 non-league win over Valley Heights. [File photo/TSN]
Freshman Nora Burdiek (22) scored 17 points in Rossville's 66-41 non-league win over Valley Heights Friday night. [File photo/TSN]
Cancellations and snow days have prevented the Bulldawgs from hitting their groove 11 days into 2024.
They defeated Rock Creek last Friday but otherwise have spent precious little time on the court.
“It’s been a mess,” said Rossville coach Michael Bell. “We’ve practiced very little since the start of the new year. We’ve had a game cancelled. We were really glad to get this game in. But when it comes to practice time, being on the court, we are behind where we want to be at.”
Valley Heights came to Rossville 7-0 with two victories in the new year. But the Bulldawgs let their defense make up for any rust that had developed on the offense and shut down the Class 2A opponent.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The 35-second shot clock was approved on a trial basis for the 2024-25 basketball season by the KSHSAA Executive Board at their board meeting Wednesday.
All KSHSAA member schools will have the option to utilize the shot clock for all home boys and girls basketball games at the varsity level.
The trial will only be during the regular season.
If a school chooses to participate in the trial they must do so for all boys and girls varsity games they host.
The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) approved the use of the shot clock for state adoption in 2022.
The KSHSAA has surveyed school administrators and coaches for their opinions on adopting the shot clock since before allowance by the NFHS.
Most recently, at the October Regional Administrator meetings, the question was favored for adoption by classes 6A and 5A (Yes 47 N0 22). However, the total vote for all classes did not favor implementation (Yes 116 N 279).
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University has announced the addition of its 17th intercollegiate sport with women's golf starting in the fall of 2024.
Washburn becomes the 12th member of the MIAA to field a women's golf team.
Ronnie McHenry
"Topeka and Shawnee County have a long history of success in high school golf and we're excited to provide another opportunity for local student-athletes to continue their education at Washburn and compete in a sport they love," said Loren Ferré, director of Washburn Athletics.
The addition of women's golf pushes the number of sports at Washburn to 17 and is the first new sport since men's and women's cross country and track and field were added in the fall of 2016.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural's boys basketball team has struggled offensively at times this season, with four games with 50 or fewer points, including a season-low 33 points in an early-season loss to Free State.
Washburn Rural senior Griffin Heinen was part of the Junior Blues' huge offensive night Wednesday, scoring a game-high 21 points in Rural's 89-65 win over Topeka High. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Junior Kaden Ballard scored 20 points, including four 3-pointers, in Wednesday's 89-65 Centennial League win over Topeka High. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
But Rural was an offensive juggernaut Wednesday night, never trailing on the way to an 89-65 home Centennial League romp past Topeka High.
"We don't care if we win in the 30s, we don't care if we win in the 80s, just whatever it takes on a given night,'' Washburn Rural coach Alex Hutchins said. "I don't know that I thought it would be that high scoring, but at the same time the offensive was going so we weren't going to mess with that.''
The Junior Blues set the stage for one of their biggest offensive nights in recent memory with a 29-point first quarter and also had a 27-point third quarter en route to their second straight win as four Rural players cracked double figures and nine players scored.
Junior Kaden Ballard came out smoking hot, scoring 11 points with three 3-pointers in the first 4:41 on the way to a 20-point night and the rest of the Junior Blues followed suit, with senior Griffin Durst scoring a game-high 21 points, senior JC Heim scoring 16 points and junior Amare Jones finishing with 12 points.
"That first quarter (by Rural) might have been one of the best shooting performances I've ever seen,'' Topeka High coach Geo Lyons said. "Once Ballard got his 3 to go it was like they were shooting the ball in the ocean. Everybody's level of play raised, so hat's off to them.''
Senior JC Heim scored 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds in Washburn Rural's 89-65 win over Topeka High. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Ballard hit eight of nine shots on the night, incuding four of five 3-pointers, while Durst went nine of 13 from the field with a pair of 3-pointers and Heim hit six of eight shots from the floor and went four of five from the free throw line while also grabbing nine rebounds.
"Kaden did a good job being ready to shoot and hitting some shots early and I thought JC and Griff did a good job of scoring inside and kind of getting us some easy baskets at the rim early to kind of establish that, too,'' Hutchins said.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural girls basketball bounced back from a loss in a big way Wednesday night, rolling to a 56-26 home Centennial League win over Topeka High.
Senior Zoe Canfield scored 17 points with three 3-pointers in Wednesday's 56-26 Washburn Rural win over Topeka High. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Freshman Maddie Vickery scored 16 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in Wednesday's 56-26 Washburn Rural win over Topeka High. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Coming off an eight-point road loss at Hayden last Friday, 10th-ranked (Class 6A) Rural trailed just once, at 2-0, Wednesday night and opened up a commanding 31-13 lead at the half and led 52-18 after three quarters to force a running clock throughout the fourth quarter.
"We were disappointed (Friday),'' Washburn Rural coach Kevin Bordewick said. "Not to take anything away from Hayden because they came after us and credit to them, but we didn't answer well at all and we were just not ourselves.
"We didn't feel like we were ourselves and we know we can probably play a little bit better than what we did tonight but we were excited that we were a little bit more fluid in our offense and we were a little bit more tenacious with our defense and those were things we wanted to see.''
