By KYLE MANTHE
Special to TopSports.news
Class 5A No. 8-ranked Topeka West boys led 3-1 over Seaman on Friday night and it was the only lead of the game for the home team as the Vikings were able to pick up a key United Kansas Conference road victory while winning nearly wire-to-wire, 48-40.
Senior Aron Davis scored a game-high 14 points in Seaman's 48-40 UKC road victory at Topeka West Friday night. [Photo by Trevor Falcon/Special to TSN]
Seaman senior Kaeden Bonner scored 13 points in Seaman's 48-40 UKC win at Topeka West despite missing time with an injury. [Photo by Trevor Falcon/TSN]
“We have struggled over here and have struggled against them everywhere we play them, so to come into their place and get a win was outstanding for our guys and hopefully something that we can build on,” said Seaman coach Craig Cox.
The defensive slugfest of a game was the exact opposite of the first time the two teams matched up this year, a 74-64 win for the Chargers at Seaman on Dec. 6 in a game that senior starter Aron Davis did not play for the Vikings.
“He was a big factor defensively with a number of blocked shots and rebounds and his ability to score brought a lot for us that we didn’t have last time,” Cox said.
With the win Seaman moved to 9-7 on the year and 6-6 in the UKC while Topeka West fell to 12-5 and 9-4 with a second straight loss.
The visiting Vikings made three first-quarter 3-pointers and closed the quarter on a 7-1 run to lead 15-8 after eight minutes.
Early in the second quarter standout senior Kaeden Bonner went down with an injury but was able to return late in the quarter.
In his stead Seaman was able to hold onto the lead, going up by as many as 11 in the quarter before leading 23-18 at halftime.
“He got hurt a couple of games earlier and was out the rest of the game and we really struggled for about a quarter and then kind of figured out how to play without him and tonight I think we did a pretty good job of that in that short period until he was able to come back in,” Cox said.
The Chargers came out of halftime without their first-half leading scorer, senior Xavier Alexander, who did not play the final two quarters, but they were able to cut the lead quickly down to just one point after a jumper by senior Sincere Austin.
After that point the Vikings went on an 11-0 run with two back-to-back 3-pointers from Kaeden Bonner right in the middle of the spurt. The lead sat at double figures, 38-28, heading into the final quarter.
Davis and Bonner each got buckets to push the lead up to 14 early in the fourth quarter. Topeka West began chipping away, cutting it to only eight after a putback from junior Caleb Noonoo.
Seaman was able to handle the Chargers' press, salt away the game and get a breakaway layup by Bryer Finley late to put the game out of reach and give the Vikings the eight-point road win.
“We did a better job than the first time, they had three guys that combined to score 62 points against us last time, so we said that we got to know where those three scorers are and we did a good job,” Cox said. “We battled and got the win.”
Davis led Seaman with 14 points on six of 10 shooting while Kaeden Bonner shot 50 percent from the floor and scored 13 and B. Finley added 10 points, including two 3-pointers.
For Topeka West Austin, Xavier Alexander and Malachi Berg finished with eight points apiece for the Chargers.
Next up Seaman goes to Leavenworth on Tuesday while Topeka West will try to shake the two-game skid against De Soto.
SEAMAN BOYS 48, TOPEKA WEST 40
Seaman 15 8 15 10 -- 48
Topeka West 8 10 10 12 -- 40
Seaman (9-7, 6-6) – Parsel 1-2 0-0 3, Freeman 1-1 0-1 2, KaeV. Bonner 1-5 1-2 4, Kaed. Bonner 4-8 2-2 13, Chapman 1-3 0-1 2, B. Finley 4-7 0-0 10, Unruh 0-1 0-1 0, H. Finley 0-0 0-0 0, Davis 6-10 2-3 14. Totals: 18-37 5-10 48.
Topeka West (12-5, 9-4) – Berg 4-11 0-0 8, Austin 3-9 0-0 8, Paul 1-4 2-3 4, Jones 1-1 1-2 3, Alexander 4-10 0-0 8, Chambers 1-1 0-1 2, Noonoo 2-4 1-2 5, Reimer 0-0 2-2 2. Totals: 16-40 6-10 40.
3-point goals – Seaman 7 (Kaed. Bonner 3, B. Finley 2, Parsel 1, KaeV. Bonner 1), Topeka West 2 (Austin 2). Total fouls – Seaman 12, Topeka West 16. Fouled out – Topeka West (Berg). Technical fouls – None.
