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By CHARLES SPURLOCK
TopSports.news
The Seaman Lady Vikings, ranked No. 3 in Class 5A by the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association, topped Piper 69-45 in a United Kansas Conference clash on Tuesday night at Seaman.
Junior Anna Backer (23) scored 15 points to lead Seaman in Tuesday's 69-45 UKC win over Piper. [File photo/TSN]
In a high-scoring first quarter, Piper shot 50 percent from the field while the Lady Vikes shot a blistering 80 percent on the way to a 19-14 first-quarter lead.
“We were scoring the ball pretty good in the first quarter,'' Seaman coach Matt Tinsley said. "Against a zone, we want to swing it and play, not swing it and stand.”
Both teams cooled off in the second quarter with Seaman heading into halftime with a 31-20 lead.
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By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
The Topeka High girls, with almost all new players from last season, were taught some rough lessons by Manhattan Tuesday night, losing at home, 56-29.
Freshman Ahsieryrhuajh Rayton led Topeka High with 11 points in Tuesday's Centennial League loss to Manhattan. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The Indians applied withering full-court pressure to the young Trojans from the jump, harassing them into turnovers and rushed shots. Manhattan capitalized with transition buckets and layups.
Topeka High fell quickly behind 18-6 in the first period, and that lead widened to 36-13 by halftime.
“Watching film, I think I (prepared the team) that, ‘That pressure’s going to be there. We’ve got to be ready for it,’ ” said Topeka High coach Brittney Redmond. “I don’t think we responded. I think it took us maybe a quarter to respond to that pressure. But by then, we’d already dug a hole for ourselves.”
All seven players who got in the game for Topeka High are either freshmen or sophomores.
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By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
The Topeka High boys found themselves short-handed against Centennial League foe Manhattan and were unable to keep pace, falling 68-35 to the Indians at home Tuesday.
Topeka High junior Da'Mykel Hales (3) scored 11 points to lead the Trojans in Tuesday's loss to Manhattan. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The Trojans were forced to go without senior point guard Isaiah Lyons, who suffered a high-ankle sprain the previous week. They were also working fellow senior guard Jalen Freeman back into the rotation following a leg injury.
“Being down Isaiah changes some things. He’s our primary ball handler, our best perimeter scorer,” said Trojan coach Geo Lyons. “We’re asking some guys to fill some roles that we haven’t prepared them to do. As a coaching staff, we’ve got to do our best to help them get ready.”
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Topeka West's boys had a lot of things go wrong in Tuesday's home United Kansas Conference game against Lansing.
But despite commiting 20 turnovers and hitting just 11 of 27 free throws, the Chargers rode a stifling defensive performance to a 52-41 win over the Lions.
Topeka West coach Rick Bloomquist talks to his team during Tuesday's 52-41 UKC win over Lansing at West. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
"You have to win ugly basketball games,'' Topeka West coach Rick Bloomquist said. "That's about the only positive thought I have -- you have to win ugly basketball games. You have to win when you're not playing well. You usually don't win when all five people aren't playing well, and we won. That's the bottom line.
"We've got things to work out, but the thing about these kids is that they're coachable. They want to be coached, they want to do the right thing. We just have too much slippage from a practice to a game and that's what's hurt us right now. We're trying to do too many drama plays instead of just play, but we'll get there.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Even though her Topeka West girls basketball team opened the 2023-2024 season with three straight losses, West coach Angie Ketterman has been pleased with her team's overall effort.
And the Chargers were able to turn their hard work into a positive outcome Tuesday night, with Topeka West rolling to a 54-34 United Kansas Conference win over Lansing at West.
Angie Ketterman (center) picked up her first win as Topeka West's girls basketball coach Tuesday night, a 54-34 UKC romp past Lansing. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
"I'm happy for the girls,'' Ketterman said. "They've been working hard. Our first two games of the season were against top teams (Basehor-Linwood and Seaman) and they played hard.
"Against Shawnee Heights we did not play hard. We kind of went back to our old ways, so our challenge tonight was to stick with the game plan and I felt like they did that tonight. We still had some errors, which that's going to happen. That's part of it, but they stuck with it.''
Topeka West, which had lost its first three games by an average of 32.3 points, trailed just once on the night en route to its first victory as five Chargers scored eight or more points.
