By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
Highland Park's No. 3-ranked (Class 5A) boys basketball team played Kansas City-Wyandotte at Topeka West Thursday night, which for the Scots, was about as close to a home game as Mike Williams' Scots are going to get for a while, maybe for the rest of the 2023-2024 season due to flooding in the Highland Park gym.
Highland Park junior Ja'Corey Robinson scored 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds in Tuesday's 85-36 win over KC-Wyandotte. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
And the Scots certainly looked at home at West, scoring the first 17 points of the night on the way to an 85-36 Meadowlark Conference rout over the Bulldawgs.
"I'm super familiar with where we're at, we're over here a lot,'' Williams said. "The (Topeka Invitational Tournament) was here last year and we're here throughout the summer and stuff. And it's my alma mater so it's always good to come back here and get a win.''
Highland Park improved to 12-1 overall and a perfect 6-0 in the conference as all 10 Scots that saw action cracked the scoring column, including five double-figure scorers.
Highland Park, which won its sixth straight game, took control of Thursday's game from the outset, not allowing a point by Wyandotte (3-12, 3-4) until there were just 59 seconds remaining in the opening quarter.
The Scots led 22-4 at the end of the quarter after forcing 12 Wyandotte turnovers over the first eight minutes and took a commanding 51-21 lead to the locker room at halftime while forcing 19 Bulldog turnovers in the first half (25 on the night).
"The reality of it is we just wrapped up a nine-game stretch in 14 days, so I'm super duper proud of these guys in every regard,'' Williams said. "Defensively we kind of knew we were going to be able to do some things but we wanted to focus in on things to help us down the line.
"So we've been working on some different defenses, some halfcourt traps and presses and then just making sure that our man-to-man defensive system is in tact because there's some better matchups down the line we've got to be ready for.''
Highland Park, playing its third game in four days, picked up where it left off at the start of the second half, hitting the Bulldogs with a 25-7 third quarter to take a 76-28 advantage into the fourth quarter. A running clock was used over the final eight minutes.
Senior MIster Cameron scored 13 points in Thursday's 85-36 Highland Park win over KC-Wyandotte. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Senior Amari Taylor scored 10 points in HIghland Park's 85-36 win over KC-Wyandotte Thursday at Topeka West. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Junior Ja'Corey Robinson scored 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds for Highland Park while senior Mister Cameron scored 13 points, senior Tamir Anderson 12 points off the bench on four 3-pointers, junior Mikey Williams 11 points and senior Amari Taylor 10.
Wyandotte did not have a double-figure scorer, with freshman Anthony Taylor leading the Bulldogs with nine points.
Highland Park is scheduled to play KC-Schlagle next Tuesday at Topeka High.
HIGHLAND PARK 85, KC-WYANDOTTE 36
KC-Wyandotte 4 17 7 8 -- 36
Highland Park 22 29 25 9 -- 85
KC-Wyandotte (3-12, 3-4) -- Murray 3-5 0-0 7, Taylor 3-11 1-2 9, Redmond 2-3 2-2 6, Pike 1-6 1-4 3, McCoy 0-1 0-0 0, Leyva 0-0 0-0 0, Jackson 1-3 0-0 2, Atty 1-5 0-4 2, Hill 1-1 2-2 4, Baltimore 0-0 0-0 0, Ushindi 0-0 1-2 1, NA 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 13-36 7-16 36.
Highland Park (12-1, 6-0)-- Taylor 5-7 0-0 10, Wilson 2-2 0-0 4, Cameron 6-7 1-1 13, Williams 3-11 4-4 11, Robinson 7-7 4-4 18, Thrasher 2-3 2-2 7, Kingcannon 2-6 0-0 4, Kelley 1-4 0-0 2, Anderson 4-11 0-0 12, Thomas 2-3 0-2 4. Totals 34-61 11-17 85.
3-point goals -- KC-Wyandotte 3 (Taylor 2, Murray), Highland Park 6 (Anderson 4, Thrasher, Williams). Total fouls -- KC-Wyandotte 15, Highland Park 19. Fouled out -- none. Technical foul -- none.
