By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
It's always tough to try to beat a team three times in the same season, a task that Washburn Rural faced in Saturday's Class 6A sub-state final against Centennial League rival Manhattan.
But the Junior Blues, the No. 3 West seed, were up to the challenge, riding fast starts in both halves to a 46-31 home win over the No. 6-seeded Indians.
Washburn Rural's girls are headed to the Class 6A state tournament for the fourth straight season after Saturday's 46-31 sub-state win over Manhattan. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Washburn Rural's girls will open this season's Class 6A state tournament bid at 8 p.m. Thursday against Blue Valley North in Wichita. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Washburn Rural, which improved to 16-6, earned its fourth straight trip to state and will looking for its fourth straight berth in the 6A state final. Rural, the No. 6 state seed, will open this year's state bid at 8 p.m. Thursday against No. 3 Blue Valley North (18-4) in Wichita's Koch Arena.
"We'll see what happens Thursday and hopefully we can have three good days of practice and kind of get some things more solidified, but we're excited,'' Rural coach Kevin Bordewick said.
The Junior Blues, intent on pounding the ball inside to sophomore standout Maddie Vickery, never trailed after scoring the first seven points, all by Vickery, before Manhattan got on the scoreboard two and a half minutes into the game.
Rural went on to go in front 14-2 on a Tenly Bunck 3-pointer at the 2:50 mark before Manhattan (14-8) scored the final three points of the quarter.
Vickery scored five more points early in the second quarter as the Junior Blues pushed their advantage to 20-5 with 5:08 left in the first half on the way to a 23-12 halftime lead.
Washburn Rural opened the second half with four straight points to push its lead back to 15 (27-12) and led 37-24 at the start of the fourth stanza.
Manhattan clawed its way within seven points (38-31) with 2:10 left, but Rural ran off the final eight points of the game after the Indians were whistled for an intentional foul with 1:28 left.
Kate Hinck hit two free throws followed by two charities from Brooklyn Rutherford and a hoop from Gracie Hayes to end the scoring.
"I think when we followed the game plan a little closer to getting the ball inside and getting some paint touches I thought things were working really well,'' Bordewick said. "Then we kind of got away from that and got back to it so it was just kind of an ebb and flow.
"We've got to get in a better rhythm of working inside out, but we got off to a good start.''
Sophomore Maddie Vickery registered a double-double with 20 points and 15 rebounds in Washburn Rural's 46-31 sub-state win over Manhattan Saturday. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Vickery, a Kansas State commit, registered a double-double with game-high totals of 20 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Junior Blues while Bunck added nine points.
Manhattan did not have a player with more than seven points.
"Overall defensively I thought we were limiting what they could do a little bit and I thought we were challenging their shots for the most part,'' Bordewick said.
WASHBURN RURAL GIRLS 46, MANHATTAN 31
Manhattan 5 7 12 7 -- 31
Washburn Rural 14 9 14 9 -- 46
Manhattan (14-8) -- Larson 2-6 0-0 5, Depusoir 1-2 0-0 2, Ball 2-12 0-3 4, Busch 0-3 0-0 0, Peabody 2-2 2-3 6, Becket 2-8 1-2 5, Ingram 0-4 0-0 0, Kaus 0-1 0-0 0, Banks 3-12 1-1 7, Dodds 1-1 0-0 2, Parcell 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-41 4-9 31.
Washburn Rural (16-6) -- Hinck 0-1 2-2 2, Rutherford 0-2 2-4 2, Vickery 6-12 7-8 20, Lemke 2-3 1-2 5, Bunck 2-7 5-8 9, Hirschi 1-3 0-0 3, Hayes 2-6 0-0 5, Carlgren 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-34 17-24 46.
3-point goals – Manhattan 1 (Larson), Washburn Rural 3 (Hirschi, Hayes, Vickery). Total fouls -- Manhattan 22, Washburn Rural 14. Fouled out – Busch. Technical fouls – none.
