By JUSTIN BURKHARDT
TopSports.news
There was a lot to celebrate for Washburn Rural Friday night, capped by a big rivalry win over the Junior Blues' biggest league rival on Winter Royalty night after a long week.
Senior Griffin Durst led the way with 17 points in Washburn Rural's 62-41 Centennial League win over Hayden Friday night. [File photo/TSN]
Sophomore John Hoytal (10) scored 14 points for Washburn Rural Friday night in a 62-41 Centennial League win over Hayden. [File photo/TSN]
The week started Monday at Manhattan with an overtime win and then after a loss against Junction City on Tuesday the Junior Blues finished off the week with a 62-41 win against Hayden.
Rural got off to a 10-0 start and went into halftime up 29-15 before pulling away for the 22-point win.
“You know it's it's been a long week,'' Rural coach Alex Hutchins said. "We started with a Monday night at Manhattan, and an overtime game, then then played a really tough Junction team on Tuesday and then you add the emotions of this rivalry game and kind of the festivities tonight that you're a little a wary of as a head coach.
"I don't know that we played our best game tonight, but I'm proud of our guys for scraping and getting the job done.”
Rural got big nights from senior Griffin Durst, who had 17 points, and sophomore John Hoytal, who finished with 14.
“I thought Grif did a good job being ready to shoot against the zone, especially when he hit a couple outside shots to get them out of the zone,'' Hutchins said. "John did a really good job of running the floor and cutting and a lot of his points were him making plays off the ball and getting himself in position to score and his teammates finding him.”
Hayden, which is still looking for that first league win this season and first win since Dec. 20th, looked better at times and continued fighting all night long.
“I thought we played hard tonight,'' Hayden coach Trey Brown said. "There are some things that that we've got to clean up offensively and defensively the biggest thing is we have to put four quarters together and 32 plus minutes, whatever it takes we've got to put that together.
“I think we looked like a great team at times but we are struggling to do it the whole game. These guys we just keep telling them to stay together and stay positive and that we're going to get through this at some point. We are still battling through adversity and you know to overcome it is the goal.''
The Wildcats got 12 points from senior Dom Ridley and 10 points apiece from seniors Carter Charvat and Cooper Colboch.
WASHBURN RURAL BOYS 62, HAYDEN 41
Hayden 11 4 13 13 – 41
Washburn Rural 17 12 13 20 – 62
Hayden (4-11 0-6) – Ridley 4-12 3-4 12, Colboch 3-7 2-2 10, Charvat 5-5 0-0 10, Hanika 0-2 2-4 2, Becker 0-1 0-0 0, Mitchell 1-2 0-0 3, Kuta 0-1 0-0 0, Grace 0-1 0-2 0, Diester 1-3 1-2 4. Totals 14-34 8-14 41.
Washburn Rural (7-9 4-2) – Durst 8-13 0-1 17, John Hoytal 6-8 2-2 14, Chooncharoen 2-4 0-2 6, Leonard 2-5 0-0 5, Heim 2-5 0-1 4, Ballard 3-6 0-0 9, Jones 1-4 1-2 4, Preston 1-1 0-0 2, Johnson 0-1 1-2 1, O’Connor 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 25-48 4-10 62.
3-point goals – Hayden 5 (Colboch 2, Ridley, Mitchell, Diester), Rural 8 (Ballard 3, Chooncharoen 2, Durst, Jones, Leonard). Total Fouls -- Hayden 10, Rural 12.
