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By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
The Rossville boys overcame a 14-point second-quarter deficit to pull away from Silver Lake in a wild second half, winning 79-74.
As would be expected in the heated “War on 24,” the intensity lasted from wire-to-wire Tuesday night at Rossville.
Junior Jack Donovan (3) scored 28 points in Rossville's 79-74 win over Silver Lake Tuesday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Down 28-14 two minutes into the second period, the Bulldawgs kept the faith and let junior Jack Donovan start chipping away. His seven points keyed a 14-6 run the rest of the period. The Bulldawgs went to the locker room down just 34-30.
The Bulldawgs continued to roll on the other side of the intermission. They went on a 29-3 run that saw them lead by as much as 19.
“We’ve been in this situation before. We’ve got to learn how to deal with that adversity and the boys have to figure that out on the court,” Rossville coach Brandon McDonnell said. “So, when we get into these pressure situations, they embrace it. And that makes it even sweeter when they get out of that pressure situation.”
“I think we were fine, but we were ready to fight back,” Donovan said about falling behind early. “Coach is fiery. He gets us to play hard and it’s fun. We just started hitting shots, playing better defense, getting stops. That’s what let us go on that run.”
After being held to just two points in the opening period, Donovan lit up the Eagles for 28, including four long-range 3-pointers.
“When he’s pulling these long-distance threes, we’re not surprised by it because that’s what he does,” McDonnell said. “If he misses, we’re like ‘You sick? What’s wrong?’ ”
“I’ve been watching these games my entire life, and it’s just fun to play in them,” Donovan said of the rivalry with Silver Lake. “It’s definitely a different atmosphere.”
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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
Barring a huge upset, the No. 3 state-ranked Shawnee Heights boys basketball team was going to win Tuesday night's home United Kansas Conference game against winless Lansing.
But after relinquishing a 14-point lead in a three-point loss to Piper its last time out, Shawnee Heights coach Ken Darting wanted a lot more out of his team than just a victory.
Senior Jaret Sanchez scored a game-high 15 points in Shawnee Heights' 66-24 win over Lansing Tuesday night. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
And Darting got exactly what he was looking for, with Shawnee Heights improving to 2-1 overall and in the UKC with a 66-24 romp past the Lions.
"Believe me, they were challenged to have energy tonight, and that's what I enjoyed,'' Darting said. "The thing you wanted to do tonight was play yourself. Play the game right, don't make turnovers, go to the boards, shoot free throws and we did that I think.
"I always worry about playing up, playing down to the competition and just want to play us every night and I thought we did that.''
Shawnee Heights missed some shots early and actually trailed 5-2 and 7-6 but the T-Birds scored the final seven points of the opening quarter to take a 13-7 lead and never looked back.
The T-Birds hit the Lions with a 23-9 second quarter to take a 36-16 advantage to the locker room at halftime and then limited Lansing to just eight second-half points as Shawnee Heights pulled away for the 42-point win.
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By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
The Silver Lake girls gathered themselves after losing for the first time in a year and half and won 62-53 at rival Rossville Tuesday night.
Coming off a 68-58 loss at Centralia, the Eagles faced another road test while many in Silver Lake’s rotation were learning tough lessons under fire.
Junior Kailyn Hanni scored 22 points for Silver Lake in Tuesday's 62-53 win over rival Rossville. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Sophomore Savannah Wende scored 16 points with four 3-pointers in Silver Lake's 62-53 win over Rossville Tuesday night. [Photo by Rex Wolfe/TSN]
“Every game for us is a growing experience and we grew so much having this experience tonight and last Friday at Centralia,” Silver Lake coach Kyle Porter said. “Getting a road win is awesome, particularly anytime you play in the ‘War on 24.’ You know it’s going to be a battle.”
Perhaps still recovering from the defeat at Centralia, the Eagles fell in an early hole to the Lady Dawgs. The home team extended its advantage to 18-12 late in the first quarter.
But that’s when the Eagles’ Savannah Wende hit the first of several big shots on the evening. She knocked down a 3-pointer, which Kailyn Hanni followed with a 2-pointer to cut the deficit to 18-17.
The second period was all Silver Lake. The Eagles ran off an 18-0 run, holding the Lady Dawgs scoreless for about six minutes. Wende hit three more 3-pointers and tallied 11 points in the period.
“My teammates help me so much. They give me good looks all the time,” Wende said. “I’m mostly a shooter, but I think there’s more to my game than just that. I’m really confident in all levels of my game.”
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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
After suffering a 25-point loss to No. 6-ranked Piper last Tuesday, Shawnee Heights' girls basketball team had a few days to regroup before returning to action Tuesday against Lansing.
The result was a dominating 67-21 home United Kansas Conference romp past the Lions as the T-Birds improved to 2-1 overall and in the UKC.
Sophomore KK Emmot outscored Lansing by herself with 27 points and seven 3-pointers in Tuesday's 67-21 win over Lansing. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
"It was good for us to just look at some of the silly mistakes that we made (against Piper),'' Shawnee Heights coach Bob Wells said. "It was induced some by Piper, but a lot of it was self-inflicted, just making dumb passes and not putting enough zip on the ball and not coming to catch the ball, all those things that you have to do against a really good team.
"And we learned that we better do those things and tonight against Lansing I thought we stayed focused and worked on those things.''
Sophomore KK Emmot keyed Shawnee Heights' attack with 27 points and seven 3-pointers as the T-Birds scored the first 23 points of the game en route to the 46-point victory.
Emmot scored the first five points of the night and had 11 points and three 3-pointers in the opening quarter and Shawnee Heights made it a 23-0 game before Lansing finally got on the board at the 5:23 mark of the second stanza.
"That's what we wanted to do,'' Wells said of the quick start. "We wanted to execute and we wanted to be in control and to me it looked like no matter what the score was it looked like we were playing with a purpose and the girls did a really good job.''
Shawnee Heights went on to take a commanding 38-10 lead at the half and outscored the Lions 24-7 in the third quarter to take a 45-point advantage (62-17) into the final quarter.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
BAYAMON, P.R. -- Washburn University women's basketball won its 1,000th game in program history in blowout fashion on Monday afternoon as the Ichabod defeated Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras 83-28 in the first game of the Puerto Rico Clasico.
Junior Yibari Nwidadah led the way with 19 points and grabbed eight rebounds in Washburn's 83-28 win Monday in Puerto Rico. [File photo/TSN]
The Ichabods will finish off the Puerto Rico trip against Ana G Mendez at 2 p.m. on Tuesday.
It was all Washburn (5-6) early on, with the Ichabods scoring the first 10 points of the game while holding the Gallitos (0-3) scoreless until the 5:17 mark in the quarter.
Six straight Ichabod points came from junior Yibari Nwidadah, who had 10 in the quarter, and pushed the lead back to 12-points. The hot-shooting carried throughout the team, shooting with WU 10-14 (71.4 percent) in the quarter to lead 24-12.
After a 5-0 start to the second quarter for Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras, the next 17 points in the game came from Washburn, beginning with a layup by Emajin McCallop at 6:58 and ending with Nia McKenzie scoring in the final minute of the half. The Ichabods went into the half leading 43-18.
Coming out of the break Washburn scored the first 14 points, pushing the lead up to 39 after another bucket from McKenzie.
