By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
WICHITA -- The Washburn Rural girls will be playing in the Class 6A state championship at Wichita State University for the third year in a row on Saturday. They earned their spot in the title game by defeating Derby 69-62 in overtime Friday night.
Seeded seventh in the tournament, Washburn Rural had to defeat second seed Wichita Heights and third seed Derby to reach the 6A final.
Washburn Rural celebrates Friday's 69-62 overtime win over Derby in Friday's Class 6A state semifinal. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Rural came back from an early deficit to take a second-half lead. But they couldn’t stop Derby’s Macayla Askew, who almost singlehandedly kept the Panthers in the game. She tied the game at 58-58 with 18 seconds left in regulation.
Washburn Rural drew up a play for senior Zoe Canfield, but her attempt on the right baseline was blocked right before the buzzer, sending the game to overtime.
“When they had all the momentum and tied it up at the end of the game, we didn’t get a good possession,” Washburn Rural coach Kevin Bordewick said. “I looked at our faces and I thought, ‘I don’t know where we are at mentally.’ But man, we took off.”
The Junior Blues hit the free throws and made the stops they needed to advance.
It didn’t look like that would be possible in the initial minutes of the game. The Junior Blues fell behind 13-4 early. They scrapped to close that deficit to 13-9 to end the period.
The Junior Blues really caught fire in the final minute of the first half. Canfield drilled back-to-back 3s. Then just before the buzzer, Maddie Vickery intercepted a pass and drilled another 3, giving Rural a 9-0 run to close the half with a 26-23 lead.
“Once again, we decided to start in a hole eight, nine, 10 points, which we really shouldn't have that method of operation, but we do,” Bordewick said. “But I told them in the locker room as far as battling and competing from the second quarter into overtime, that’s the best that it’s been. We were engaged, we were involved and invested. We battled.”
“That was huge, us gaining the momentum right before halftime,” Canfield said of the 9-0 run. “We needed that. I think without that, it would have been a lot tougher to play the rest of the game the way we did.”
Washburn Rural scored effectively after its slow start. But it couldn’t figure out how to stop Askew in the second half. The Derby sophomore scored six points in the first half, then went off for 15 in the third period. She finished with 35 points, hitting 17 of 24 shots and grabbing 12 rebounds.
“We just didn’t have an answer for her,” Bordewick said. “We thought we were on her, and she’d sneak by. We were trying to keep her away from the bucket and we couldn’t do that very well. She was just a monster, and we literally didn’t have an answer for her.”
Maddie Vickery scored 24 points in her second straight Class 6A state tournament game, leading Washburn Rural to a 69-62 overtime win over Derby. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Washburn Rural senior Zoe Canfield scored 18 points with three 3-pointers in the Junior Blues' 69-62 OT win over Derby. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
While Askew was lighting up the scoreboard for Derby, Vickery kept the Junior Blues clicking. She scored 24 points for the second straight game in the state tournament. Canfield finished with 18. Ella Hirschi came off the bench to hit three 3-pointers to add nine points.
Having vanquished another higher-ranked foe, the Junior Blues will now face the top seed, Shawnee Mission South, Saturday at 4 p.m.
“They’re loaded. They’ve lost only two games in two years,” Bordewick said. “But they got beat in the first round last year, so they’re out for revenge. They’re going to come after us. We’ve got to figure out how we can at least limit what they can do. And maybe we’ve got to change a few things that we do on offense.”
Canfield couldn’t be much happier to be back in the title game. The Kansas University basketball commit was a starter on the Junior Blues’ championship team two years ago. But a torn ACL forced her to watch as last year’s team lost in the title game.
“This is everything. Running off the court, I was tearing up,” Canfield said. “This time last year, I could barely walk up and down the stairs. So, it doesn’t get much better than this.
“This is what we’ve worked the whole season for, and this is what we were made for. These are the moments you dream of.”
WASHBURN RURAL GIRLS 69, DERBY 62
Washburn Rural 9 17 19 13 11 -- 69
Derby 13 10 17 18 4 -- 62
Washburn Rural (17-7) – Vickery 6-17 10-4 24, Hinck 1-5 3-4 5, 2-5 0-0 4, Ochs 2-5 0-0 4, Canfield 5-15 5-6 18, Bunck 2-3 2-4 7, Lemke 1-2 0-1 2, Hirschi 3-6 0-0 9. Totals: 20-53 20-29 69.
Derby (20-4) – D. Smith 0-5 0-0 0, Kyler Demel 1-3 0-0 2, M. Smith 1-6 0-0 3, Wilson 6-15 1-3 14, Askew 17-24 1-1 35, Karlie Demel 1-1 2-2 4, Kelley 1-1 0-0 2, Rickords 0-1 0-0 0, Carpenter 0-0 0-0 0, Lansing 0-3 0-2 0, Sayarath-Fox 1-1 0-0 2 . Totals: 28-60 4-8 62.
3-point goals – Washburn Rural 9 (Hirschi 3, Canfield 3, Vickery 2, Bunck 1), Derby 2 (M. Smith 1, Wilson 1). Total fouls – Washburn Rural 10, Derby 20. Fouled out – Kyler Demel. Technical fouls – None.
