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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
Rossville's boys basketball team completed its run to the Oskaloosa Invitational championship with a decisive 57-37 victory over Perry-Lecompton in Saturday's title game.
Rossville's boys basketball team poses for a team picture on Saturday after winning the tournament championship in the Oskaloosa Invitational. [Rossville Athletics]
Imroving to 7-4 on the season, sophomore Jack Donovan had a monster 28-point performance for the Bulldawgs, scoring 28 points with four 3-pointers and a 6 of 6 performance at the free throw line.
Rossville also got 16 points from junior Kameron Bonura.
Rossville led by just a point (14-13) at the end of the opening quarter but used a 16-6 second quarter to take control, leading 30-19 at the half.
The Bulldawgs boosted their lead to 45-30 at the start of the fourth quarter and cruised the rest of the way.
Sophomore Jack Donovan (3) and Tayson Horak (12) were named to the Oskaloosa Invitational All-Tournament Team. [Rossville Athletics]
Donovan and junior Tayson Horak were named to the all-tournament team for the Bulldawgs.
Silver Lake's girls basketball team poses for a team picture after winning the tournament championship in the Burlington Invitational. [Silver Lake basketball]
Top-ranked Silver Lake girls top Ottawa for Burlington championship
Silver Lake's girls, top-ranked in Class 3A by the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association, claimed the tournament championship in the Burlington Invitational with a 64-46 romp past Ottawa.
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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
Highland Park's bid for a second straight Topeka Invitational Tournament championship came to a heartbreaking end Saturday at the Bueltel Activity Center, with Wichita Northwest pulling out a 64-61 win in the final seconds.
Highland Park junior Ja'Corey Robinson, who had 16 points and 15 rebounds, reacts to the Scots' last-second 64-61 loss to Wichita Northwest. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
A dejected Highland Park team receives its second-place medals Saturday at Hayden after the Scots' 64-61 loss to Wichita Northwest. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
But Highland Park coach Mike Williams said the Scots, No. 3-ranked in Class 5A by the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association, will learn from that loss and use it as motivation moving forward.
"It was a competitive game, a good basketball game, probably could have went either way,'' Williams said. "We came out on the other end of the stick but not at the expense of our kids not competing and giving us chances. We competed from buzzer to buzzer, got down, got up, fought back, gave something up and got back in it and had opportunities late in the game.
"But that's a good team over there in that locker room, good leadership, a good collective group and this is something that we can learn from and take forward for our team. Our goal is still in front of us and we learned a little bit more about what we need to get there through this weekend.''
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By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
The Washburn men got a big spark from a freshman Saturday to defeat Pittsburg State 81-74 in Lee Arena and stay in the thick of the MIAA race.
Pittsburg State led by as many as 10 in the first half, but the Ichabods came roaring back in the final minutes of the period.
Freshman Jack Bachelor led a balanced Washburn attack with 14 points in Saturday's 81-74 MIAA win over Pittsburg State. [File photo/TSN]
Freshman Brayden Shorter scored 13 points and provided Washburn with a big first-half lift in the Ichabods' 81-74 MIAA win over Pittsburg State. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
Freshman Brayden Shorter deposited two 3-pointers and dunked over the Gorilla defense – a one-man eight-point run to cut the deficit to 34-32 with 2:17 remaining in the half.
The Ichabods finished the half with a Jack Bachelor 3-pointer and a driving shot by Sam Ungashick to go up 37-36 at the buzzer, their first lead since they led 2-1 in the opening minute.
“Sometimes you need that and it’s good to have a guy come off the bench and do that,” Washburn coach Brett Ballard said of the spark provided by Shorter. “We were kind of stagnant and didn’t have much going and he did give us that spark.
“His teammates set him up. He had a couple of open looks. And then he made a great individual play on the dunk.”
“I wasn’t trying to take over the game or anything. I am just having fun out there,” Shorter said. “When I dunked it and heard the crowd, I love doing that. As long as I can give my team whatever I can, that’s what I’m going to do.”
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By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
The Washburn University women put an end to a three-game losing streak by downing No. 25-ranked Pittsburg State 75-62 Saturday at Washburn.
Prior to Saturday, Washburn dropped games at Central Missouri and at Lincoln, then at home against Missouri Southern.
Senior Aubree Dewey scored a game-high 23 points Saturday as Washburn snapped a three-game losing streak with a 75-62 MIAA win over Pittsburg State. [File photo/TSN]
“When you get into that streak, it’s easy to make it that perfect storm where you think that everything is going wrong,” said Washburn coach Lora Wentling. “But really, we got exposed in three different ways in those three games. Credit our kids, they handled each of those issues during the week in practice and their prep.
“We’ve been challenging the heck out of them as a staff. And they rose to the occasion and showed incredible toughness today.”
The Ichabods and Gorillas traded runs through the first half. After trailing 18-17 after a quarter, Washburn outscored Pittsburg State by 10 in the second quarter to go to halftime leading 41-32.
Senior Aubrey Dewey led the way in the first half, running to several fastbreak buckets to collect 15 points before halftime.
Washburn fought off any attempt by the Gorillas to rally in the second half. Ahead by just seven with 3:05 remaining, Washburn got back-to-back 3-pointers from senior Mackenzie Gamble and sophomore Aniah Wayne to widen the margin, finishing with a 13-point advantage.
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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
Topeka West had plenty to play for in Saturday's Topeka Invitational Tournament game, getting what is now a rare opportunity to face city and USD 501 rival Topeka High while also getting a chance to pick up a second straight tournament win.
Sophomore Keimani Paul had a breakout 21-point game in Saturday's 55-30 Topeka Invitational win over Topeka High. [Photo by Kyle Manthe/Special to TSN]
And veteran West coach Rick Bloomquist also dangled a little extra motivation in front of his Chargers, who went out and turned in an impressive 55-30 win over the Trojans to claim the consolation title (fifth place) while improving to 6-4 on the season.
"It hopes that they knew Sunday was open for a practice if things didn't work out the way we wanted them to,'' Bloomquist said. "That was probably the biggest motivation that we were going to get it out of them one way or another.
"I said, 'You prove to me today that you want to play the game the way it's supposed to be played all the time or we'll just keep on teaching on Sunday.' Well, guess what, sometimes those motivations are much-needed.''
Topeka High (5-7) led 3-0 and 8-4 in the early going, but West rallied for an 11-8 first-round lead and boosted its advantage to double-digits (28-17) at the half.
West opened up a 17-point advantage (44-27) by the start of the fourth quarter and limited the Trojans to just three points over the final eight minutes while closing out its 25-point win.
