By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
As a three-time All-Shawnee County first-teamer and by far Seaman's most experienced player, a lot is expected out of Maddie Gragg.
And the senior star delivered in a big way Friday night, posting game-high totals of 24 points and 16 rebounds to power the No. 7-ranked Vikings to a home 45-26 United Kansas Conference victory over Topeka West.
Seaman senior Maddie Gragg scored 24 points and grabbed 16 rebounds in Friday's 45-26 UKC win over Topeka West. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
"I had a talk with her about what a senior leader needs to do and that's what she needs to do,'' Seaman coach Matt Tinsley said. "I told her after the game, she played hard on both ends of the floor. She played a full game today, and other girls stepped up, too.''
Topeka West, 1-3 overall and 0-2 in the UKC, jumped out to an 8-5 first-quarter lead, but the Vikings used a 12-2 second quarter to take a 17-10 halftime advantage and continued to pad their advantage in the second half en route to improving to 2-1 overall and in the conference.
Seaman opened up an 11-point advantage (29-18) lead at the end of the third stanza and led by as many as 24 points in the fourth on the way to the 19-point win.
Tinsley said the Viking were trying to play at too frantic of a pace offensively in the first half, but got things under control as the game wore on.
"The first half, I told the girls on a scale of one to 10 our offensive pace was 12 out of 10,'' Tinsley said. "We were highway driving in the city. We were running stop signs, we were hitting parked cars, we were all over the place.
"I threw out that we needed to play at a six or seven out of 10 and slow down the pace down a little bit and be strong with it and you saw that in the second half. We were more in control and our defense and rebounding, that was 12 out of 10. We got after it, and I was really proud of that.''
Gragg was the Vikings' lone double-figure scorer, but junior Brynn Spencer added nine points and sophomore Claire Puvogel had seven.
Topeka West senior Addaline Hall scored 10 points to lead the Chargers in Friday's 45-26 loss to Seaman. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Senior Addaline Hall led Topeka West with 10 points while senior Teairra Gonzales added 8 points with a pair of 3-pointers.
Seaman will host UKC foe Kansas City-Turner on Tuesday while Topeka West will host Piper in a conference contest.
SEAMAN GIRLS 45, TOPEKA WEST 26
Topeka West 8 2 8 8 -- 26
Seaman 5 12 12 16 -- 45
Topeka West (1-3, 0-2) – Allen 1-5 0-0 3, Gonzales 3-13 0-1 8, Brooks 0-2 0-0 0, VanDyke 1-7 3-7 5, Hall 3-12 3-6 10, Traylor 0-0 0-0 0, Ogles 0-0 0-0 0, Kutina 0-0 0-0 0, McGlory 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 8-42 6-14 26.
Seaman (2-1, 2-1) – Frickey 0-1 0-0 0, Dreher 1-5 0-0 2, Beaton 1-10 0-0 3, Puvogel 3-8 0-0 7, Gragg 9-18 2-2 24, Ketron 0-1 0-0 0, Spencer 4-6 0-0 9, Ayres 0-3 0-0 0, Zurmely 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 18-52 2-2 45.
3-point goals – Topeka West 4 (Gonzales 2, Allen, Hall), Seaman 7 (Gragg 4, Spencer, Beaton, Puvogel). Total fouls – Topeka West 7, Seaman 14. Fouled out – none. Technical fouls -- none.
