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By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

State tournament qualifiers Rossville and Silver Lake combined to put three players on the All-Big East League boys basketball first team.

Jack Donovan, Rossville

Dayne Johnson, Silver Lake

Jakoby McDonnell, Rossville

Rossville, a Class 2A state qualifier for the second straight season, is represented on the first team by seniors Jack Donovan and Jakoby McDonnell, while Silver Lake, third in 3A the past two seasons, put senior Dayne Johnson on the all-league first team.

The Bulldawgs put senior Cameron Miller on the all-league second team while Silver Lake junior Camden Kruger was a third-team all-league pick.

ALL-BIG EAST LEAGUE BOYS BASKETBALL

First team

Ben DeVader, sr., St. Marys; Jack Donovan, sr., Rossville; Dayne Johnson, sr., Silver Lake; Jakoby McDonnell, sr., Rossville; Braylen Siebenmorgen, jr., Hiawatha. 

Second team

Houston Habiger, jr., Perry-Lecompton; Micah Lang, jr., Sabetha; Cameron Miller, sr., Rossville; Ethan Morton, sr., Hiawatha; Kalem Schmelzle, jr., Nemaha Central.

Third team

Landon Gilbert, jr., Royal Valley; Jace Hurla, jr., St. Marys; Camden Kruger, jr., Silver Lake; Jason Payne, sr., Jefferson West; Brody Schwinn, jr., Jefferson West.

Honorable mention

Davis Carson, sr., Riley County; Korben Fox, sr., Holton; Easton Graves, jr., Perry-Lecompton; Dash Hackett, jr., Jefferson West; Michael Jensen, sr., Hiawatha; Lane Kesler, sr., Hiawatha; Colby Krein, sr., Perry-Lecompton; Cole Menold, sr., Sabetha; Trystan Murata, sr., Royal Valley; Zach Sommer, sr., St. Marys.   

By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

Class 3A state champion Silver Lake and 2A state qualifier Rossville earned four of the five first-team spots on the All-Big East League girls basketball team.

Silver Lake, which captured its second 3A state title in three seasons Saturday in Hutchinson, put senior Kailyn Hanni and sophomore Karys Deiter on the All-Big East first team while Rossville, which dropped a tight 2A quarterfinal game to No. 1 seed Ellinwood, is represented by senior Rylee Dick and junior Nora Burdiek.

Kailyn Hanni, Silver Lake

Karys Deiter, Silver Lake

Nora Burdiek, Rossville

Rylee Dick, Rossville

Silver Lake junior Savanah Wende was a first-team all-league selection.

ALL-BIG EAST LEAGUE GIRLS BASKETBALL

First team

Nora Burdiek, jr., Rossville; Karys Deiter, so., Silver Lake; Rylee Dick, sr., Rossville; Kailyn Hanni, sr., Silver Lake; Kylie Nelson, jr., Hiawatha.

Second team

Macie Corcoran, jr., Perry-Lecompton; Emma Hermesch, jr., Nemaha Central; Audrey Holle, so., Riley County; Brenlee Koontz, fr., Jefferson West; KiWe Miller, so., Royal Valley.

Third team

Emmie Dean, so., Jefferson West; Addi Gutsch, fr., Riley County; Panno Wahwassuck, jr., Royal Valley; Savanah Wende, jr., Silver Lake; Michaela Williams, so., Hiawatha.

Honorable mention

Jadelynn Brees, jr., St. Marys; Rebekah Lassey, jr., Holton; Kennedy McKee, so., Nemaha Central; 

By TODD FERTIG

TopSports.news

HUTCHINSON -- The Hayden girls took home the school’s first basketball state championship since 2004 by downing perennial power Bishop Miege 57-52 Saturday at the Hutchinson Sports Arena. 

Hayden senior Ella Foster celebrates with coach Carvel Reynoldson and her teammates after Saturday's 57-52 win over Miege in the Class 4A state championship game. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

The Class 4A title game offered Hayden a chance to avenge its 59-52 semifinal loss to Bishop Miege a year ago, when the Wildcats settled for third place.

Hayden exploded out of the gate with a run that put the Stags in scramble mode the rest of the game.

Sophomore Blakely Walter set the tone by burying a 3-pointer on the game’s opening possession. Sophomore Hailey Schmidtlein then hit a couple of shots as the momentum began to grow.

When senior Ella Foster hit a three at the 3:51 mark, Hayden had a 10-0 lead on the stunned Stags.

The Wildcats threw every defense in coach Carvel Reynoldson’s book at the Stags, face-guarding star Mary Grant on the perimeter and using various bodies to combat Bishop Miege’s size advantage in the paint.

“We came out and really kind of suffocated them,” Reynoldson said. “I don’t know if they were ready for us to press them or not, but we pressed them and they looked really timid. And Kadence Watts early on, she had some fundamentally perfect blockouts on (the Stags’ 6-foot-1 post Jayla McClinton) that just set the tone for us.”

Hayden led 14-2 at the end of the brilliant first period. The Wildcats padded the lead by outscoring the Stags 15-12 in the second quarter to sit on what looked like a commanding 29-14 halftime lead.

Bishop Miege, winners of 25 state titles, responded like champions. They hit Hayden with a 10-2 run out of the break, cutting the lead to seven.

But the Wildcats regrouped and outscored the Stags 9-3 over the final three minutes of the quarter, a run punctuated by a Schmidtlein’s driving floater at the buzzer to put Hayden up 43-29. For their efforts, the Stags shaved just one point off the Wildcat lead in the period.

“That was everything,” Reynoldson said. “We told the girls in the locker room that Bishop Miege was going to make runs, but we didn’t want it to be that quick or that big. So, the fact that we answered it was really probably the difference in the game.”

Hayden senior Lauren Borjon celebrates a big shot in Saturday's 57-52 Hayden win over Bishop Miege. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

Even after Hayden senior Lauren Borjon opened the fourth period with a 3-pointer to put Hayden up by 17 points, the Wildcats knew Bishop Miege would not go quietly. The Stags gradually whittled the deficit, then mounted a 10-1 run that shaved the Hayden lead to 55-52 with 52 seconds remaining.

Hayden came up with some white-knuckle stops at the defensive end and Schmidtlein made a driving basket with eight seconds remaining to seal the win.

“Generally speaking, we took care of the ball,” Reynoldson said of the fourth period. “We did have some turnovers, but we also kept attacking their press. We had some layups that were really big down the stretch. Continuing to be aggressive on offense, even though we wanted to run clock, that turned out to be a big, big difference.”

Bishop Miege star Grant, a Murray State University signee, tallied 19 points Saturday, but did so on 7-19 shooting. She was limited to just two 3-pointers. That was a big enough improvement over last year, when Grant torched the Wildcats for five 3-pointers and 27 total points in the semifinal game.

Sophomore Hailey Schmidtlein registered a double-double with 24 points and 11 rebounds in Saturday's 57-52 Hayden win over Bishop Miege. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

Schmidtlein stuffed the stat sheet with 24 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and four blocked shots. She took turns guarding Grant on the perimeter, as well as defending McClinton, who finished with 20 points, 13 of which came in the Stags’ fourth-quarter push.

“What was so great was that we had so many defenses that we could use, we wanted to keep switching them,” Reynoldson said. “And it’s so much easier when you have a lead.”

“Grant is an incredible player. We knew we wouldn’t be able to shut her down, but wanted to slow her down as much as we could,” Schmidtlein said. “I think that was a big part of that game, being able to have multiple people on her and getting people breaks. One person can’t guard her the whole game. Having people rotating was a huge part of that.

“I think knowing that I had great help defense was one of the reasons why I could pressure (Grant) so much and fluster her. Because I could get up knowing I had people behind me telling me they got help. If she did go past me, I had someone stepping right up to take her next.”

Schmidtlein noted that the Wildcats and Stags are quite familiar with each other.

“Beating Miege is pretty special,” the sophomore said. “We lost to them in soccer in the state championship last year, and they’ve done really good in volleyball, too. We know they’re always going to be there, so we might as well step up and come out and play confident.”

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