By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural boys basketball wrapped up the Centennial League championship with Friday's 55-42 home win over Hayden, but there was zero celebrating.
Junior Simon Rowley led Washburn Rural with 17 points in Friday's 55-42 Centennial League win over Hayden. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
That will come later.
Washburn Rural, which improved to 14-4 overall and a perfect 8-0 in the league, has Centennial road games at Topeka High on Tuesday and Manhattan on Friday and Junior Blues coach Alex Hutchins wants his team concentrating on that and nothing else.
"We've still got two more league games and we'll talk about it after that,'' Hutchins said of the title. "All we're worried about is the next two league games.''
Hayden (10-8, 4-5) scored the first basket of Friday's game, but that was the Wildcats' only lead of the night as the Junior Blues opened up a 16-10 first-quarter advantage and led 32-24 at the half.
The seventh-ranked (Class 4A) Wildcats stayed within striking distance throughout the third stanza, but got no closer than six in the quarter and trailed by nine points (40-31) at the start of the fourth.
Washburn Rural scored the first two buckets of the final quarter, going in front 44-31 on a Kaden Ballard hoop with 6:01 remaining, and put the game away with a Draden Chooncharoen 3-pointer at the 3:07 mark that gave the Junior Blues a 49-35 advantage.
Hayden got no closer than nine the rest of the way while Rural led by 15 late.
Senior Kaden Ballard scored 13 points in Friday's 55-42 Centennial League win over Hayden. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Junior Simon Rowley led the Junior Blues with a game-high 17 points while Ballard, a senior, added 13 points and junior John Hoytal 10.
Hoytal and senior Amare Jones both grabbed seven boards while Ballard had six rebounds.
"Despite some ugly turnovers and despite some cold shooting (21 of 48), it never got too interesting or too dicey and we were happy about that,'' Hutchins said. "I felt like the defense was pretty solid and really the times it got the most questionable for us was when we were turning it over (13 on the night) and giving them some runouts.
"When we actually got to set up our defense we felt pretty good about it.''
Hayden senior James Kuta (3) recorded a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds in Friday's 55-42 loss to Washburn Rural. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Senior James Kuta led Hayden with 13 points (6 of 7 from the field) while recording a double-double with 11 rebounds.
Sophomore Mason Becker added 11 points while hitting all three of the Wildcats' 3-pointers.
Hayden will be at home Tuesday to host Junction City and will host Eudora in a non-league game on Thursday.
WASHBURN RURAL BOYS 55, HAYDEN 42
Hayden 10 14 7 11 -- 42
Washburn Rural 16 16 8 15 -- 55
Hayden (10-8, 4-5) – Kuta 6-7 1-1 13, Deister 2-8 0-0 4, Hanika 3-11 3-4 9, Mitchell 1-5 0-0 2, Becker 4-14 0-0 11, Banks 0-1 1-2 1, Heinen 0-2 0-0 0, Compton 0-4 2-2 2, Wolff 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-52 7-9 42.
Washburn Rural (14-4, 8-0) – Jones 2-7 2-2 6, Leonard 1-5 0-0 2, K. Ballard 3-6 6-6 13, Rowley 8-16 0-1 17, Hoytal 4-7 2-2 10, Wright 0-0 0-0 0, Schwinn 0-0 0-0 0, Chooncharoen 3-7 0-2 7, B. Ballard 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-48 10-13 55.
3-point goals – Hayden 3 (Becker 3), Washburn Rural 3 (K. Ballard, Rowley, Chooncharoen). Total fouls – Hayden 13, Washburn Rural 10. Fouled out – none. Technical fouls – none.
