By JUSTIN BURKHARDT
TopSports.news
No. 7-ranked Hayden girls basketball hosted city and Centennial League rival Topeka High Tuesday night, remaining undefeated in league play with a 51-40 home win over the Trojans.
Sophomore Hailey Schmidtlein scored a game-high 16 points Tuesday in Hayden's 51-40 Centennial League win over Topeka High. [File photo/TSN]
Topeka High would score first with senior Trish Short scoring the first basket, but Hayden would answer with sophomore Hailey Schmidtlein finding the basket to tie it up at two.
Hayden would go on a 8-2 run to end the first quarter up 10-4.
“In the first half, we only turned the ball over three times,'' Hayden coach Carvel Reynoldson said. "So when you only turn the ball over three times, you know you're going to start hitting stuff. I was actually happy when it was 10-4, I know we only had 10 points, but we were playing good defense.''
Both teams would wake up in the second quarter and would start finding the basket, as Topeka High junior Ahsieyrhuajh Rayton would score 4 of her 7 points in the quarter and the Trojans would go into halftime trailing the Wildcats, 23-15.
Both teams would come out of the locker room hoping for a spark and Hayden would get off to a hot start with a 9-5 run to get the third started and the Wildcats would stretch its lead to 32-18.
The Trojans would get a little spark but Hayden’s Alana Mitchell would get a steal at halfcourt and drive to the basket and force another turnover on the very next possession and grab another basket to kill the Trojans' rally as the third quarter would come to an end with the Wildcats up 38-26.
Topeka High sophomore Hailey Caryl would try to give her team a spark in the fourth as she would score the first two baskets in the quarter and would score 7 of her team-high 15 in the fourth quarter.
It wouldn’t be enough because Hayden’s Schmidtlein would score 6 more of her game-high 16 in the fourth to solidify the win for her team.
“Honestly, a big thing is I focus on my defense and my defensive effort and my attitude on defense can carry over and it will carry over,'' Schmidtlein said. "If we just keep playing as a team on defense, we were bound to start making shots.”
The Wildcats will travel to Manhattan on Friday and face off against the 7-2 and 6A No. 8 Lady Indians in a showdown with league championship implications on the line this early in the season.
The Trojans will travel to Junction City Friday.
HAYDEN 51, TOPEKA HIGH 40
Topeka High 4 11 11 14 -- 40
Hayden 10 13 15 13 -- 51
Topeka High -- (3-6, 0-2) -- Caryl 6-11 3-5 15, Short 3-5 1-4 8, Gotru 3-9 1-2, 7, Rayton 3-8 1-3 7, Marshall 1-8 0-0 2, Whayne 0-2 1-2 1, Triplett 0-1 0-0 0, Hartz 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-44 8-24 40.
Hayden (9-2 3-0) -- Schmidtlein 6-22 3-5 16, Watts 2-3 0-0, Foster 1-5 0-4 3, Huscher 1-2 1-2 3, Walter 1-8 1-2 3, Borjon 3-5 1-2 9, Mitchell 2-3 2-2 6, Connell 2-4 0-0 4, Wichman 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 19-55 8-17 51.
3-point goals -- Topeka High 1 (Short), Hayden 5 (Boron 2, Schmidtlein, Foster, Watts). Total Fouls -- Topeka High 18, Hayden 16. Fouled out -- None.
