By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Hayden's boys basketball team punctuated a solid 4-1 start to the 2023-2024 season with a 69-56 home non-league win over Shawnee Mission West Wednesday night.
The Wildcats went wire-to-wire for their third straight win after scoring the first four points of the game against a short-handed Shawnee Mission West team, which played without multiple varsity players (coach's decision).
"It was pretty solid,'' first-year Wildcat coach Trey Brown said of his team's performance. "I love their effort, being down a key guy (injured senior Jacob Padilla). I think the guys fought hard and we've got a couple of things to clean up, but other than that the effort was great, we executed for the most part and they played hard and that's all you can ask for this early on.''
Hayden led by just a 17-15 margin at the end of the opening quarter but pushed its lead to double-digits (37-27) at halftime after leading by as many as 13 points late in the half.
The Wildcats opened up a 19-point lead twice in the third quarter and led 60-45 at the start of the fourth quarter.
The winless Vikings (0-4) rallied to within nine points with back-to-back 3-pointers to open the fourth stanza but Hayden pushed its lead back to 17 late in the game after five straight points from senior Cooper Colboch.
Senior Dom Ridley scored a game-high 19 points, including three 3-pointers, to lead Hayden while Colboch added 16, with 13 coming in the second half.
Senior Carter Charvat and freshman Mason Becker added 11 points apiece for the Wildcats, with Charvat also grabbing nine rebounds
Junior Brayden Everett led Shawnee Mission West with 15 points while senior Elijah Johnson added 13 and sophomore Miles White 11.
Hayden will return to action Jan. 2, hosting Emporia in the Wildcats' Centennial League opener.
"We talked about it and we know it's a long break and a couple of weeks where if this had gone the other way it would have been a long couple of weeks,'' Brown said. "Being 4-1 sounds real nice right now but we know we've got to keep working because we've got a tough second part of the season.''
HAYDEN 69, SHAWNEE MISSION WEST 56
Shawnee Mission West 15 12 18 11 -- 56
Hayden 17 20 23 9 -- 69
Shawnee Mission West (0-4) -- Johnson 4-12 3-3 13, Everett 6-17 3-7 15, Geering 3-11 0-1 8, VanDeventer 2-7 0-0 4, White 4-12 1-1 11, Coopeer 0-2 0-0 0, Webb 2-4 0-0 5. Totals 21-65 7-12 56.
Hayden (4-1) -- Colboch 6-16 3-6 16, Charvat 5-10 1-3 11, Ridley 7-12 2-2 19, Mitchell 0-6 0-0 0, Grace 1-3 1-2 3, Deister 2-2 0-0 5, Becker 5-8 1-2 11, Hanika 2-2 0-0 4, Kidd 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 28-61 8-15 69.
3-point goals -- Shawnee Mission West 7 (Johnson 2, Geering 2, White 2, Webb), Hayden 5 (Ridley 3, Colboch, Deister). Total fouls -- Shawnee Mission West 15, Hayden 10. Fouled out – none.