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By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

The No. 3-ranked Washburn Ichabods rolled to a dominant 88-49 MIAA win over Pittsburg State on Wednesday night in Lee Arena, improving to 27-1 and 17-1 in the conference with their 28th straight home victory.

Sophomore Dillon Claussen scored a game-high 23 points with five rebounds and two blocked shots in Wednesday's 88-49 win over Pittsburg State. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

The Ichabods put up 44 points in each half while holding the Gorillas to 34 percent shooting, winning their 11th game in a row over Pitt State.

"We took care of business,'' Washburn coach Brett Ballard said. "I thought we played well on both sides and disrupted them. We created a lot of turnovers, which was good.

"I thought our defensive disruption really bothered them and we held them to a low shooting percentage and offensively we were efficient.'' 

The Gorillas (15-13, 9-9) took a 9-6 lead seven minutes into the half, but Washburn used an 11-0 run over the next three minutes with eight points by sophomore Dillon Claussen to take control.

Back to back 3-pointers by sophomore Marcus Glock and a 3-pointer from senior Sam Ungashick pushed the Washburn lead to 26-16 and another 12-2 run by the Ichabods doubled up the Washburn lead to 38-19 with 2:53 to play in the first half.

Washburn would go on to take a 44-26 lead into the halftime break.

The Ichabods' biggest lead reached 39 in the second half, with WU closing the final 6:57 of the game on an 18-1 run.

Washburn held the Gorillas to 0 of 8 shooting down the stretch as five different Ichabods scored.

Claussen finished with a game-high 23 points on 9 of 15 shooting while adding five rebounds and two blocked shots.

While Claussen did the bulk of his work inside, he also stepped outside to can a 3-pointer, which he said is always fun.

"It's super fun,'' Claussen said. "I worked on my 3s a lot in the offseason and I've been able to shoot them. My coaches and my teammates believe in me to shoot them so I love shooting 3s. It's fun to get out there and see one go down.''

Like Ballard, Claussen thought the Ichabods turned in a solid performance against the Gorillas.

"They've had some close games with some good teams, so we knew we had to come in here and take care of business,'' he said. "We don't have many games left in Lee Arena this year and every one matters and we executed the game plan really well. It was a great win and everyone's happy.''

Junior Jack Bachelor scored 13 points with seven rebounds and eight assists in Washburn's 88-49 win over Pittsburg State Wednesday in Lee Arena. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

Sophomore Marcus Glock scored 15 points on five 3-pointers in Wednesday's 88-49 win over Pittsburg State. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN] 

Junior Jack Bachelor scored 13 points with eight assists, seven rebounds and three steals and Glock finished with 15 points off the bench, hitting five 3-pointers.

Junior Jeremiah Jones set Washburn's single-season steals record in Wednesday's 88-49 win over Pittsburg State in Lee Arena. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

Junior Jeremiah Jones scored eight points with three steals, breaking the Washburn single-season steals record of 82 set by Will McNeill during the 2012-13 season.

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By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

Junior Brecken Garrett shot a 739 three-game series to capture the individual championship in Tuesday's Class 6A bowling regional at Lawrence's Royal Crest Lanes, leading Washburn Rural to the team championship by a 3,614-3,341 margin over Mill Valley.

Washburn Rural's boys bowling team won the team title in Wednesday's Class 6A regional in Lawrence. [Photo courtesy of Mac Moore/Lawrence Sports]

Washburn Rural junior Brecken Garrett (left) captured the individual championship in Wednesday's Class 6A boys bowling regional at Lawrence. [Photo courtesy of Mac Moore/Lawrence Sports]

Garrett shot games of 216, 258 and 265 to take the individual crown by 26 pins over Olathe Northwest junior Carter Bloomcamp (713).

The Junior Blues also got a sixth-place finish from junior Andrew Faurot (674), an eighth-place showing from senior Cody Spangler (648), a 12th from senior Parker Dixson (636) and a 13th-place finish from sophomore Zachary Hancock (626), while senior Jackson Keller shot a 576 to round out Washburn Rural's lineup.

Topeka High finished 11th as a team, led by senior Jayden Wilson's 562 series.

Washburn Rural's girls also earned a team berth for next week's state tournament in Wichita, placing third behind Mill Valley (3,416) and Centennial League rival Junction City (3,099) with a score of 3,011. 

Junior Megan Glinka placed eighth in Wednesday's Class 6A girls bowling regional at Lawrence, leading the Junior Blues to a state berth with a third-place finish. [Photo courtesy of Mac Moore/Lawrence Sports]

Rural junior Megan Glinka tied for seventh and placed eighth on a tiebreaker with a 633 series, including games of 221 and 222.

The Junior Blues also got a 12th-place finish from Kenzie Lawson (591) while senior Camrynn Ahrens (556), freshman Peyton Lawson (503), senior Stella Gordon (487) and senior Ellen Austin (447) rounded out Rural's lineup.

Topeka High finished 12th as a team.

The 6A state tournament will be held next Friday, March 4, at Wichita's Bowlero Northrock.

Boys competition will get under way at 8:50 a.m., followed by the girls at 1:40 p.m. 

CLASS 6A REGIONAL BOWLING

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By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

By his own admission, Topeka High's Elisha Guest has been struggling with his 3-point shooting recently, and the 5-foot-7 senior guard got off to another tough start Tuesday night at Washburn Rural.

Topeka High celebrates Tuesday's 56-55 win at Washburn Rural. [Photo by Doug Walker/TSN]

But after that game-opening miss, Guest caught fire, scoring a game-high 25 points with seven 3s to lead Topeka High to a 56-55 win over the Junior Blues while High was able to clinch a winning regular-season record.

"My first shot was an air ball as everybody saw, but then I think I hit two or three in a row and I got rolling after that,'' Guest said.

"It's great to get it back. I've been struggling from the 3-point line but the rest of the team, they've kept my head up so I was able to hit a lot this evening.''

Topeka High's win was not secure until Rural senior John Hoytal's potential game-winning shot at the buzzer bounced around and out, but all that mattered to first-year High coach Robbie Sanders was that the Trojans found a way to pull out the victory after a five-point home loss to city rival Topeka West a night earlier.

"I told these boys that just look at my face and look at me from the beginning of the season until now, I've got a lot more gray hair and a lot less hair, but I'm happy we were able to find a way,'' Sanders said. "I think last night, even though we lost there were a lot more positives than negatives and just competing the way we did against Topeka West gave us a lot of confidence going into today.

"We started off strong and we had some lapses, but we were able to make enough plays in the end.''

Topeka High, now 12-11 overall and 5-5 in the league after winning just one game last season, led much of Tuesday's game, including an 18-9 advantage at the end of the first quarter and a 21-11 edge early in the second stanza.

But Washburn Rural (11-10, 4-5) battled back to take a 30-29 lead on a Brooks Ballard 3-pointer to end the first half and the game was tied 43-all at the start of the fourth.

Rural led 49-46 with five minutes remaining after a Zach Wright basket, but Topeka High scored seven straight points to go up 53-49 on a Jalen Aldridge trey and went in front 56-52 on a Guest 3.

Hoytal hit a 3-pointer to pull Rural within a point with 43.2 seconds left and Dominic Nimz came up with a steal with 20 seconds remaining to give the Junior Blues a change to pull out the win.

Washburn Rural missed a shot with 2.7 seconds on the clock, but Topeka High turned the ball over with two ticks left and Hoytal got a good look on his last-second miss.

Topeka High senior Bryson McComas backed Guest with 15 points while Aldridge had nine.

"It was a must win and 'E' really stepped up today, Bryson made some plays, Ajalon (Ross) got us started off hot after not being able to play yesterday because of illness,'' Sanders said. "I'm just happy with the guys.''

Washburn Rural senior John Hoytal scored 20 points in Tuesday's 56-55 loss to Topeka High. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]

Hoytal led Rural with 20 points while Ballard added 11.

Washburn Rural will close out its regular season Friday at home against Manhattan while Topeka High will await the postseason pairings.

 "We could potentially have a home game if things shake our way tonight and Friday,'' Sanders said. "If not we could potentially go to Wichita, but I think all the games and the teams that we could face will be pretty good competition but winnable games for us.''

TOPEKA HIGH BOYS 56, WASHBURN RURAL 55

Topeka High       18 11 14 13 -- 56

Washburn Rural   9 21 13 12 -- 55

Topeka High (12-11, 5-5) – Aldridge 2-6 3-4 9, Guest 9-14 0-0 25, McComas 5-12 3-4 15, Ross 2-4 0-0 5, McFadden 0-2 0-0 0, Carter 0-0 0-0 0, Wilkerson 0-0 0-0 0, Redmond 1-1 0-0 0, Luarks 0-1 0-0 0, Campbell 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-40 6-8 56. 

Washburn Rural (?-?, ?-?) – Nimz 1-1 2-2 4, Ballard 5-11 0-0 11, Hoytal 7-11 4-5 20, Chooncharoen 1-3 0-0 2, Schmidt 2-5 0-0 4, Wright 3-5 0-1 6, O'Connor 3-6 1-1 8, Bradley 0-1 0-0 0, Jones 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-44 7-9 55.

3-point goals – Topeka High 12 (Guest 7, Aldridge 2, McComas 2, Ross), Washburn Rural 4 (Hoytal, Ballard O'Connor). Total fouls – Topeka High 10, Washburn Rural 10. Fouled out – none. Technical fouls -- none.