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By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

Brooks Ballard

BROOKS BALLARD, Washburn Rural

A 6-foot-2 sophomore, Ballard connected on 6 of 10 3-point attempts and hit 7 of 11 shots overall and his only free throw attempt on the way to a career-high 21-point performance in Saturday's 68-53 non-league road victory at Olathe West, helping the Junior Blues improve to 5-2 on the season.

Hailey Caryl

HAILEY CARYL, Topeka High

Playing only her second game of the season after missing four games with an injury, the 5-foot-10 sophomore scored a career-high 26 points Friday night, including a 6 of 7 performance at the free throw line, as Topeka High posted its second straight victory, an 87-31 road decision over USD 501 rival Highland Park.

KK Emmot

KK EMMOT, Shawnee Heights

Emmot, a 5-foot-8 junior, scored 9 of her game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter, including the game-winning free throws with 2.9 seconds remaining, as Shawnee Heights took a 38-36 home non-league victory over city rival Hayden Friday night. Emott scored 7 of the T-Birds' final 8 points as Heights improved to 4-3.

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By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

Washburn Rural girls basketball coach Kevin Bordewick knew that his No. 6-ranked Junior Blues were going to face a tough task to knock off No. 9 Olathe North Monday night.

 Freshman Brynn Anderson scored 14 first-half points with three 3-pointers in Washburn Rural's 50-35 loss to Olathe North Monday night. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]

And that task became a lot tougher after 6-foot freshman Brynn Anderson, who scored 14 first-half points with three 3-pointers, missed the second half for precautionary reasons after Anderson hit her head on the court after drawing a charging foul.

Olathe North, now 6-1 on the season, took advantage of Anderson's absence while also forcing 23 turnovers en route to a 50-35 road win.

"(Brynn) was shooting it well, she was in a great rhythm,'' Bordewick said. "(Losing her) took the wind out of our sails a little bit, but we're not going to make excuses. We've got other people that can play, other people on that floor.

"And it's not that you have to do what Brynn does, but we have to do what we can do as a team to do a little better than what we did.'' 

Anderson hit all three of her 3-pointers in the first quarter to help Rural (4-2) go up 14-7 and opened the second stanza with an old-fasioned 3-point play to give the Junior Blues a 17-7 advantage at the 6:48 mark of the second quarter.

But Olathe North used a 13-0 run to take a 20-17 advantage before Anderson scored her final points of the night with 22 seconds remaining to cut Rural's halftime deficit to a point at 20-19.

The Eagles took control with an 18-6 third quarter to build a 38-25 advantage and the Junior Blues got no closer than nine the rest of the way.

Senior Hallie Walker scored 9 points and grabbed five rebounds in Washburn Rural's 50-35 loss to Olathe North Monday night. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSNl

Anderson was the lone Washburn Rural player to crack double figures while senior Hallie Walker added 9 points and senior Ella Hirschi 7 with a pair of 3-pointers.

Senior Asia Lee led Olathe North with a game-high 19 points while sophomore Lailah Boyd recorded a double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds.

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By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

There was very little that Washburn University women's basketball coach Lora Westling was happy about at halftime of Tuesday's home non-conference game against Truman State and Westling imparted that displeasure to her team in no uncertain terms.

Junior Britany Kogbara scored a team-high 18 points in her first Washburn start, helping lead the Ichabods to a 68-52 win over Truman State. {Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]

And although Westling didn't get everything she was looking for out of her team in the second half, the Ichabods did plenty enough to take control on the way to a 68-52 victory in Lee Arena while improving to 7-3 on the season.

"It's sad that with the experienced group that we have, with that many seniors, that I have to raise my voice like that to get any sort of response,'' Westling said. "It's disappointing, but I'm glad it worked. Aniah (Wayne) came out and had a great second half with effort and I thought Britany (Kogbara) wanted the ball a little more, but we still didn't get as much as we needed.

"We had a great opportunity for some players to step up and show some things tonight and that level of effort and execution is just not to the standard that we've set here.''   

Early offense built a lead in the opening minutes for Washburn as the Ichabods led 9-6 after Kogbara, a junior, got a layup to go.

But the next six points went to the Bulldogs (4-6) to go in front. The Ichabods finished the opening quarter on a 5-0 run and led 16-14 after a 3-pointer by Wayne, a senior, with 32 seconds left in the quarter.  

Washburn extended its lead to 21-14 after senior Gabi Giovannetti connected from deep, but the Ichabod offense went cold and was held scoreless for the next five minutes as Truman State pulled within two.

The lead went back to the Bulldogs in the final minute before half as they went into the locker room leading 28-27 after both teams shot under 30 percent in the half. 

Washburn shot 28.6 percent in the second quarter while committing 12 first-half turnovers and giving up 18 first-half points to Truman State's Emajin McCallop, a former Ichabod. 

But Washburn came out of the break with the first five points to go in front and the lead quickly grew to double-digits with a triple by junior Madelyn Amekporfor at the 3:26 mark of the third quarter as part of a 15-0 run.

The Ichabods hit 8 of 15 shots in the third while holding the Bulldogs to 25 percent shooting and led 47-35 heading to the fourth quarter.  

The Washburn offense continued to churn in the fourth as the Ichabod lead reached 24 points before Truman State cut its final deficit to 16 points.

"I think we're very capable of bouncing back from adversity,'' Wayne said. "I think we kind of were shocked in the first half, but I think as a team we made sure to get in tight huddles and just know that we could do it and play our game.

"We had a big bounce back in the third quarter and that really set the tone for the rest of the game.''  

After a 41-point second half the Ichabods shot 43.5 percent for the game while holding the Bulldogs to 18-57 (31.6 percent) shooting overall. 

The rebounding battle was won 44-29 by Washburn, which led 42-24 in paint scoring as well.

Kogbara, making her first start for the Ichabods in the absence of injured senior star Yibari Nwidadah, led four players in double figures for the Ichabods with 18 points on 9 of 12 shooting while also adding five rebounds and two blocks.

"I wasn't nervous coming in,'' Kogbara said. "I've been in this position before and just knew I had to be aggressive.

"Me and Yibari, we've been competing since Day 1 in practice and we're different players, but we're kind of similar in many ways. I really love how she's been competing with me and she pretty much prepared me for this moment.'' 

Amekporfor had 13 points on 6 of 9 shooting while Giovannetti chippped in 12 points and senior Payton Sterk finished with 10.

Senior Aniah Wayne grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds with 7 points and four steals in Tuesday's 68-52 Washburn win over Truman State. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]

Wayne scored seven points while adding a career and game-high 10 rebounds and registering four steals. 

"We've emphasized rebounding in practice and we know it can be a game changer,'' Wayne said. "Rebounding was big in this game and I think taking on that role was very important and just knowing that I could do it.''

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