By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
After graduating seven seniors off last year's team, Shawnee Heights girls basketball coach Bob Wells had numerous holes to fill in the T-Bird rotation entering the 2023-2024 season and has done that with multiple players who saw spot or no varsity duty a year ago.
Three games into the new year the veteran coach has been been very pleased with the results, including a home 58-23 United Kansas Conference romp past Topeka West Friday night.
Shawnee Heights coach Bob Wells talks to his team during Friday's 58-23 UKC win over Topeka West. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Shawnee Heights senior Breezy Canady scored 13 points, with three 3-pointers, in the T-Birds' 58-23 win over Topeka West Friday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
One of those varsity newcomers, junior Haley Bowers came off the bench to score a game-high 14 points against West while senior Breezy Canady, the T-Birds' most experienced player, added 13 points with three 3-pointers.
Shawnee Heights junior Kaydence Torrez (20) had eight points and six rebounds in Friday's 58-23 win over Topeka West while senior Zoe Clark (35) led the Chargers with 10 points and 10 rebounds. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Shawnee Heights, which had nine players crack the scoring column, also got eight points and six rebounds from junior Kaydence Torrez, seven points from senior Audrey Schulte and six points and nine rebounds from senior Rachel Swift.
"We've been seeing this building and we saw it building last year because that's how those kids played on the JV team,'' Wells said. "They're just very unselfish, they play hard and they play together and they play for each other.
"I was very, very pleased with how even when the game got to be where the score was divided they kept executing and they kept doing what we're working on in practice.''
Heights, which improved to 2-1 overall and in the UKC, jumped on Topeka West (0-3, 0-3) from the get go, scoring the final 10 points of the first quarter to take a commanding 17-4 advantage into the second quarter.
The T-Birds boosted their lead to 18 points (29-11) at halftime and used a 19-4 third quarter to take a 48-15 lead and force a running clock throughout the fourth quarter.
Shawnee Heights cruised the rest of the way, leading by as many as 41 points.
Topeka West senior Zoe Clark had a double-double for the Chargers with 10 points and 10 rebounds while sophomore Imani McGlory added nine points and senior Rebecca Bearman scored four points and grabbed 11 rebounds.
Shawnee Heights will travel to Basehor-Linwood next Tuesday for a UKC game while Topeka West will host Lansing in a conference contest.
SHAWNEE HEIGHTS 58, TOPEKA WEST 23
Topeka West 4 7 4 8 -- 23
Shawnee Heights 17 12 19 10 -- 58
Topeka West (0-3, 0-3) -- I. McGlory 4-13 1-1 9, Hall 0-5 0-0 0, Gonzales 0-7 0-0 0, Clark 4-13 2-5 10, Bearman 2-8 0-2 4, Keeling 0-3 0-0 0, Scott 0-1 0-0 0, A. McGlory 0-2 0-0 0, Kutina 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 10-53 3-8 23.
Shawnee Heights (2-1, 1-2) -- Emmot 1-4 0-0 2, Schulte 3-6 0-0 7, Canady 5-6 0-0 13, Vega 1-5 2-2 4, Swift 3-8 0-0 6, Brees 0-1 0-2 0, Torrez 4-6 0-1 8, Euwer 1-6 0-0 2, H. Bowers 5-12 5-12 2-2 14, Hamilton 0-0 0-0 0, E. Bowers 0-0 0-0 0, Hanshaw 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 24-56 4-7 58.
3-point goals -- Shawnee Hights 6 (Canady 3, H. Bowers 2, Schulte). Total fouls -- Topeka West 11, Shawnee Heights 10. Foule+d out – none.
