By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural's girls and boys basketball teams were up to the challenge in Saturday's GWAL/Centennial/WAC Challenge at Wichita, with the Junior Blues earning a sweep over Wichita Heights.
Rural's girls set the tone for the day when the Junior Blues rallied from a double-figure deficit to knock off the No. 4 Wichita Heights girls, 49-34, and the Junior Blue boys followed that up with a 39-38 win over the top-ranked Falcon boys, the defending Class 6A state champions.
Washburn Rural's girls, the defending 6A state champs, beat No. 4 Heights on Saturday after beating No. 6-ranked Shawnee Mission Northwest on Tuesday night at Rural.
The Junior Blues trailed the Falcons 12-7 at the end of the opening quarter and 25-14 at the half before outscoring Heights 35-9 in the second half.
Junior Zoe Canield paced the 3-2 Junior Blues with 15 points, including four 3-pointers, while senior Brooklyn DeLeye added 14 points and senior Chloe Carlgren nine points.
Rural's boys led 10-9 at the end of the first quarter before Heights took an 18-17 lead at halftime.
The Junior Blues (3-2) went in front by six points late in the third quarter and went up 35-28 with 6:24 left in the game before fighting off the Falcons in the final seconds for the one-point victory.