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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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By TODD FERTIG

TopSports.news

HUTCHINSON -- By defeating Osage City 60-44 on Saturday in Hutchinson, the Silver Lake girls won their second title in three seasons and the eighth in school history. 

Silver Lake senior star Kailyn Hanni celebrates at the end of Saturday's 60-44 win over Osage City in the Class 3A championship game. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

The Eagles built a 26-14 lead at the half, which they expanded to 40-29 after three periods.

But the Indians staged a comeback that saw the Silver Lake lead sliced to just five points, 55-50, with six minutes remaining. The Eagles defended, hit free throws and capitalized on a couple of runouts to shut down the Osage City rally.

After hitting just 8-15 from the line for three periods, Silver Lake was a perfect 10-10 in the fourth.

“In the postseason, you know you’re (facing) a good team,” Silver Lake coach Kyle Porter said. “They’re gonna  make runs. We knew that they were going to get going. We knew we were gonna take a punch and we just needed to respond and play the next play.”

Porter’s star player, a senior who hardly ever makes mistakes, made one final blunder. As the final seconds ran off the clock Kailyn Hanni fired the ball high into the air and ran to embrace her teammates. The only problem was, the ball came down out of bounds with a second remaining.

“I got scared. I just threw the ball up. I didn’t know what I was doing,” Hanni laughed.

Silver Lake senior Kailyn Hanni holds the Class 3A championship Saturday in Hutchinson. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

She could afford to laugh. The Fort Hays State recruit scored 21 points, hit 11-13 from the line, collected nine rebounds, dished out seven assists and drew 11 fouls on Osage City defenders.

“I said, 'You had one more second and then you could have done that,' ” Porter said of Hanni. “She’s the most complete player that I’ve ever coached. Not just what she does with the ball and her command of the entire floor, but her ability to pass, her ability to score.”

Porter said Hanni demonstrated her leadership traits when she took command of the situation when Silver Lake fell behind 7-0 to Holcomb in the semifinal contest.

“When you have a player do that, it’s one thing for a coach to do it, but when you have a player that calms everybody down, she’s just an incredible leader, and incredible kid,” Porter said. “We’re gonna miss her next year, but we’re excited for what she has in store.”

In Hanni’s four years of varsity action at Silver Lake the Eagles finished fourth her freshman year, took first her sophomore year, and lost in the state final to Halstead by three points last year. She admitted that the pain of losing outweighs the thrill of winning.

“Last year, we felt it a lot worse, and so from that day on, we were grinding until this day,” Hanni said.

“Each state championship in its own is a special journey, a special ride,” said Porter, who won a state title at Royal Valley before coming to Silver Lake six years ago. “With this one, what made it so awesome is the fact of how close we came last year and we didn’t finish the job.

"That left a sour taste in our players’ mouths. And I knew looking in the eyes of our team tonight in the fourth quarter – we were going to get (Osage City’s) best shot in the fourth quarter – I could tell that we were gonna respond and finish the game.”

Sophomore Karys Deiter scored 19 points in Silver Lake's 60-44 win over Osage City Saturday in Hutchinson. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

Silver Lake junior Savanah Wende scored 10 points in Saturday's 60-44 win over Osage City. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TNS]

Hanni scored just four points in the first half as Osage City focused on corralling her. Silver Lake sophomore Karys Deiter stepped up with 11 first-half points. Junior Savanah Wende also produced big baskets. Deiter and Wende finished with 19 and 10 points respectively.

“Karys has played a lot of basketball in her life and that experience, along with Kailyn, that pays dividends in a game like this,” Porter said. “She stepped up in a big way. We needed to have complimentary scoring tonight. It couldn’t just be Kailyn and Savanah (Wende). It’s got to be everybody, and it was really nice to see Karys step up.”

“I was really happy to see Savanah and Karys really come out on top in that first half. And then my coach was like ‘Ok, time to turn it on.’ And I was like ‘Ok, let’s go.’ ” Hanni said.

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By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

Top seed Washburn University men's basketball saw its 2025-2026 season come to an end Saturday as No. 8 seed Minnesota-Duluth survived a second-half Ichabod rally for a 64-62 win in an NCAA Central Regional quarterfinal at Lee Arena.

 

Washburn junior Jack Bachelor drives for a basket in Saturday's 64-62 NCAA Central Regional loss to Minnesota-Duluth. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]

 

The Ichabods ended their season 31-2, winning the MIAA regular-season and tournament championships, while Minnesota-Duluth improved to 22-11 with its ninth straight win, advancing to a 7:30 p.m. regional semifinal on Sunday to face No. 4 seed St. Cloud State, an 83-65 winner over Missouri Western.

 

Minnesota-Duluth, which snapped Washburn's 29-game home winning streak, led 32-29 at halftime and survived a strong second-half surge by the Ichabods, who outscored the Bulldogs 33-32 over the final 20 minutes but could not overcome a cold shooting night from beyond the 3-point arc.

 

"Give Duluth a lot of credit,'' Washburn coach Brett Ballard said. "They were better tonight and I just didn't have us well enough prepared, so that's on me.

 

"We just didn't have it tonight. We just couldn't get in a rhythm offensively. Their length bothered us and we just couldn't get shots to go and some things didn't go our way, but they had a lot to do with that, so I don't want to take any credit from them, they were great.'' 

 

Senior Bryson Smith led Washburn with 15 points in Saturday's 64-62 NCAA Central Regional loss to Minnesota-Duluth. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]

 

Washburn was led by senior Bryson Smith, who scored 15 points while adding five assists and two steals, before fouling out with 1:31 remaining.

 

Sophomore Tyson Ruud (2) scored 12 points for Washburn in Saturday's 64-62 NCAA Central Regional loss to Minnesota-Duluth. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]

 

Sophomore Tyson Ruud scored 12 points on 5 of 6 shooting and pulled down three rebounds while senior Brady Christiansen, junior Jack Bachelor and senior Isaiah Saams-Hoy all finished with eight points for the Ichabods.

 

Christiansen also led Washburn with a game-high eight rebounds.

 

The Ichabods played their third straight game without injured 6-foot-8 sophomore standout Dillon Claussen, a first-team All-MIAA pick.

 

Washburn finished just 3 of 18 (16.7 percent) from 3-point range, going 1 of 13 in the opening half, but found success in the paint, where it outscored Minnesota-Duluth, 40-20.

 

Minnesota Duluth placed three players in double figures, led by Matt Thompson and Caleb Siwek with 13 points each, while Noah Paulson added 12 points and six rebounds.

 

The Bulldogs shot 47.8 percent from the field and knocked down 9 of 23 3-pointers, helping offset Washburn's advantage inside.

 

The Bulldogs built their biggest lead of the game at 12 points midway through the second half, but Washburn responded with a 15-point run to take a three-point lead with just over nine minutes remaining.

 

The Ichabods tied the score with 2:23 to play and took the lead on a traditional 3-point play, putting Washburn up 58-56.

 

Minnesota-Duluth went up 62-59 after a pair of free throws with 24 seconds left but WU cut the lead to one with eight seconds to play after Bachelor was fouled on a 3-point attempt.

 

UMD hit two free throws with five seconds to play and Washburn's attempt on a rebound off an intentional missed free throw went the way of the Bulldogs, finishing up the game.

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