By ANDREW GILL
TopSports.news
In Tuesday night’s 49-27 non-league home win over Tonganoxie, Adysen Burghart could not have had a much better game for Shawnee Heights' girls basketball team.
“She’s been having some big nights and was ready to have another breakthrough,” Shawnee Heights coach Bob Wells said of the senior. “With only four weeks of the regular season left, I think she’s starting to feel being a senior a little bit. She’s been showing up with a different attitude [in practice], I’m hoping that’ll be infectious.''
Burghart shot an impressive 8 for 12 from the field and 3 for 3 from the charity stripe for a game high 20 points. She also managed to snag 7 rebounds.
Fellow senior Taylor Hawkins also came up big for Heights, grabbing 11 rebounds and scoring 7 points. Sophomore Riley Showalter was the only other T-Bird to score in double-digits, adding 12 points.
Despite a sluggish second quarter when the T-Birds turned the ball over 4 times and scored just 6 points, they took a 22-12 lead into halftime and controlled the tempo the rest of the game.
Senior Morgan Brusven was the high scorer for Tongie, going 5 for 7 from the field and scoring 12 points.
As the season draws closer to the end, Wells said his squad is feeling confident.
“We’re ready to go to work and see what we can accomplish these last four weeks,'' Wells said.
TONGANOXIE BOYS 61, SHAWNEE HEIGHTS 53
Seniors Rylee Beach (22 points), Heston Robbins (17), and Dallas Bond (14) combined for 53 points in the Chieftains' 61-53 win over Shawnee Heights. It was the second time the two squads faced-off this season, with the T-Birds winning the first matchup, 58-52.
After Isiah Johnson had a huge outing in their first bout, Tonganoxie head coach Phil Jones knew his teams would need to slow down the Heights senior in order to get a win.
“We didn’t have a scout on them 9before the first game0 and Johnson went off, he ended up having like 34 points. Our defensive strategy (tonight) was to faceguard him, take him out and make the other four try to beat us,” Jones said.
The Chieftains managed to hold Johnson to just 9 points.
Shawnee Heights led 16-10 at the end of the first quarter, but once Tongie stole the lead in the second, it never lost it.
Both teams were able to string solid scoring runs together in a physical second half. Down 49-45, Heights found themselves in trouble when their leading scorer, Nathan Pewe (13 points), fouled out with just 2:41 to go in the game.
After the T-Birds missed a few crucial shots down the stretch, the outcome was all but decided.
In the end it was Beach who sealed the game for Tonganoxie, making 2 3-pointers and 4 free throws late in the fourth quarter. He shot 6 for 12 from 3-point land and was the only Chieftain to make a 3 the whole game.
SHAWNEE HEIGHTS GIRLS 49, TONGANOXIE 27
Shawnee Heights 16 6 18 9 -- 49
Tonganoxie 2 10 4 11 -- 27
Shawnee Heights -- Showalter 5 2-4 12, Brown 1 0-0 3, Burghart 8 3-3 20, Canady 2 1-2 5, Oczko 0 2-2 2, Hawkins 3 1-2 7. Totals 19 9-13 49
Tonganoxie -- Sunderland 1 0-0 3, Brusven 5 2-5 12, Seba 2 0-2 4, Aaron 1 0-0 3, Lang 0 2-2 2, Rickard 1 0-0 3. Totals 10 4-10 27
TONGANOXIE BOYS 61, SHAWNEE HEIGHTS 53
Tonganoxie 10 19 13 19 -- 61
Shawnee Heights 16 9 11 17 -- 53
Tonganoxie -- Poje 1 3-3 5, Robbins 8 1-1 17, Bond 5 4-4 14, Beach 6 4-5 22, Brown 1 1-1 3. Totals 21 13-15 61
Shawnee Heights -- Pewe 5 0-0 13, Johnson 4 1-2 9, Sanders 2 0-0 4, Jones 1 0-2 2, Davis 4 4-7 12, Dodge 2 0-0 5. Totals 21 5-11 53
