By TODD FERTIG
TopSports.news
HUTCHINSON -- The Hayden girls took home the school’s first basketball state championship since 2004 by downing perennial power Bishop Miege 57-52 Saturday at the Hutchinson Sports Arena.
The Class 4A title game offered Hayden a chance to avenge its 59-52 semifinal loss to Bishop Miege a year ago, when the Wildcats settled for third place.
Hayden exploded out of the gate with a run that put the Stags in scramble mode the rest of the game.
Sophomore Blakely Walter set the tone by burying a 3-pointer on the game’s opening possession. Sophomore Hailey Schmidtlein then hit a couple of shots as the momentum began to grow.
When senior Ella Foster hit a three at the 3:51 mark, Hayden had a 10-0 lead on the stunned Stags.
The Wildcats threw every defense in coach Carvel Reynoldson’s book at the Stags, face-guarding star Mary Grant on the perimeter and using various bodies to combat Bishop Miege’s size advantage in the paint.
“We came out and really kind of suffocated them,” Reynoldson said. “I don’t know if they were ready for us to press them or not, but we pressed them and they looked really timid. And Kadence Watts early on, she had some fundamentally perfect blockouts on (the Stags’ 6-foot-1 post Jayla McClinton) that just set the tone for us.”
Hayden led 14-2 at the end of the brilliant first period. The Wildcats padded the lead by outscoring the Stags 15-12 in the second quarter to sit on what looked like a commanding 29-14 halftime lead.
Bishop Miege, winners of 25 state titles, responded like champions. They hit Hayden with a 10-2 run out of the break, cutting the lead to seven.
But the Wildcats regrouped and outscored the Stags 9-3 over the final three minutes of the quarter, a run punctuated by a Schmidtlein’s driving floater at the buzzer to put Hayden up 43-29. For their efforts, the Stags shaved just one point off the Wildcat lead in the period.
“That was everything,” Reynoldson said. “We told the girls in the locker room that Bishop Miege was going to make runs, but we didn’t want it to be that quick or that big. So, the fact that we answered it was really probably the difference in the game.”
Even after Hayden senior Lauren Borjon opened the fourth period with a 3-pointer to put Hayden up by 17 points, the Wildcats knew Bishop Miege would not go quietly. The Stags gradually whittled the deficit, then mounted a 10-1 run that shaved the Hayden lead to 55-52 with 52 seconds remaining.
Hayden came up with some white-knuckle stops at the defensive end and Schmidtlein made a driving basket with eight seconds remaining to seal the win.
“Generally speaking, we took care of the ball,” Reynoldson said of the fourth period. “We did have some turnovers, but we also kept attacking their press. We had some layups that were really big down the stretch. Continuing to be aggressive on offense, even though we wanted to run clock, that turned out to be a big, big difference.”
Bishop Miege star Grant, a Murray State University signee, tallied 19 points Saturday, but did so on 7-19 shooting. She was limited to just two 3-pointers. That was a big enough improvement over last year, when Grant torched the Wildcats for five 3-pointers and 27 total points in the semifinal game.
Schmidtlein stuffed the stat sheet with 24 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and four blocked shots. She took turns guarding Grant on the perimeter, as well as defending McClinton, who finished with 20 points, 13 of which came in the Stags’ fourth-quarter push.
“What was so great was that we had so many defenses that we could use, we wanted to keep switching them,” Reynoldson said. “And it’s so much easier when you have a lead.”
“Grant is an incredible player. We knew we wouldn’t be able to shut her down, but wanted to slow her down as much as we could,” Schmidtlein said. “I think that was a big part of that game, being able to have multiple people on her and getting people breaks. One person can’t guard her the whole game. Having people rotating was a huge part of that.
“I think knowing that I had great help defense was one of the reasons why I could pressure (Grant) so much and fluster her. Because I could get up knowing I had people behind me telling me they got help. If she did go past me, I had someone stepping right up to take her next.”
Schmidtlein noted that the Wildcats and Stags are quite familiar with each other.
“Beating Miege is pretty special,” the sophomore said. “We lost to them in soccer in the state championship last year, and they’ve done really good in volleyball, too. We know they’re always going to be there, so we might as well step up and come out and play confident.”
The Wildcats finished the season with a mark of 22-6. As always, playing a schedule full of 5A and 6A opponents helped prepare them for the rigors of the postseason. Reynoldson credited the Hayden seniors with showing the character of a champion.
“I don’t think at the beginning of the year that many people expected this team to win the state championship. Our seniors led by example,” Reynoldson said. “You can put in whatever you want, but it surely comes down to just playing as hard as you possibly can. It doesn’t matter what you scheme up. It matters who wants it more.”
The four seniors all made big contributions. Watts scored seven points and grabbed seven rebounds. Foster spent considerable time guarding Grant. Foster hit her only shot, the three that capped the first-quarter 10-0 run. Reese Huscher provided versatile defense and energy and Borjon hit 3-4 shots, including two 3-pointers, for eight points off the bench.
Sophomores Walter and Sophia Wichman contributed eight points apiece for the Wildcats.
HAYDEN GIRLS 57, BISHOP MIEGE 52
Bishop Miege 2 12 15 23 – 57
Hayden 14 15 14 14 -- 52
Bishop Miege (19-9) – Lemay 2-13 0-0 6, Singleton 1-6 0-0 2, Grant 7-19 3-3 19, McClinton 9-13 2-4 20, Erskine 0-0 0-0 0, Switzer 0-0 0-0 0, Calderon 1-6 0-0 3, Maher 0-1 0-0 0, Schleicer 1-3 0-2 2. Totals 21-61 5-9 52.
Hayden (22-6) – Walter 3-10 1-1 8, Schmidtlein 11-18 1-2 24, Foster 1-1 0-2 3, Huscher 0-0 0-0 0, Watts 1-3 2-2 5, Wichman 2-5 2-4 6, Borjon 3-4 0-0 8, Mitchell 1-4 1-1 3, Connell 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 22-48 7-12 57.
3-point goals – Bishop Miege 5 (Lemay 2, Grant 2, Calderon), Hayden 6 (Borjon 2, Walter, Schmidtlein, Foster, Watts). Total fouls – Bishop Miege 17, Hayden 9. Fouled out – one. Technical fouls – none.
