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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University men's basketball moved into the NCAA national semifinals with a 90-78 win over Lenoir-Rhyne Tuesday night in Evansville, Ind., sending the Ichabods to the final four of the national tournament.
Washburn celebrates Tuesday's 90-78 national quarterfinal win over Lenoir-Rhyne. [Photo courtesy of Jeff Jacobsen/Action Images Photography, Inc.]
Now 30-3, the Ichabods advanced to an 8:30 p.m. semifinal on Thursday night against No. 1-ranked Nova Southeastern.
The Ichabods led from start to finish on Tuesday thanks to a hot start coming out of the gate in both halves, but WU had to fight through several Lenoir-Rhyne rallies to get the win.
"Every team here has a great team and no team here is going to quit and we saw that,'' Ichabod senior Jacob Hanna told KTPK Radio after the game. "We'd go up and they'd take it back down but I think we did a good job of continuing to fight.''
WU pulled in front of the Bears 13-4 after sophomore Brayden Shorter scored nine points in the early going.
Washburn pushed its lead to 13 after a traditional 3-point play from Hanna put the Ichabods up 27-14 with 11:48 remaining in the first half, but the Bears (29-6) chipped away, trimming their deficit to five less than 60 seconds later before a pair of Hanna free throws, a 3-pointer from Shorter and a Hanna bucket in the paint pushed the margin back to 10.
The WU lead stayed in double digits until the Bears used a 9-0 run to pull within three again at 40-37.
Back-to-back layups from freshman Dillon Claussen and senior Michael Keegan stretched the Washburn lead back to seven but LRU hit three free throws with 37 seconds left before sophomore Jack Bachelor's jumper sent the Ichabods to the locker room with a 46-40 lead.
In the second half the Ichabods went up by 20 with 14:42 to play and by as many as 21 before the Bears came back again.
"I think at the start of the second half we did a good job of coming out with a lot of fire, a lot of energy,'' Hanna said. "I think where it really started was in the locker room. I think coach challenged us and we responded to the challenge.''
The Bears eventually cut the lead to seven, but two jumpers in a row from Claussen put the margin at 11 and the Bears got no closer than nine the rest of the way.
"We did a really good job of finishing,'' WU coach Brett Ballard told KTPK Radio. "I thought the beginning of the halves was big. We started off the game on a great run and then the first five or six minutes of the second half were really good basketball.''
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By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
The Topeka High girls soccer team relied upon a mix of returners and new contributors to open the season with a 5-0 win over Topeka West at Hummer Sports Park Tuesday.
Topeka High freshman Emma Schell (left) celebrates an early goal with teammate Paty Acosta-Salas in the Trojans' 5-0 win over Topeka West. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Freshman Emma Schell scored right out of the gate in her debut with the Trojans, punching a breakaway past the Charger goalkeeper at 38:43 of the first half. She scored again off a rebound just seven minutes later.
Topeka High junior Dana Chavarria Delacruz (22) celebrates a first-half goal in the Trojans' 5-0 win over Topeka West. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The Trojans got a goal from Dana Chavarria Delacruz later in the period to go to the intermission leading 3-0.
“We graduated a lot of players from last year, but I knew we had some ability to attack coming back,” Topeka High coach Derek Snook said. “The biggest thing was whether we were going to meld together the way we needed to and communicate the best we could.”
Having gained a commanding lead, Snook went deep into the bench, but the Trojans continued to pour it on, getting two goals from Natalie Barnes in the second half.
Junior captain Raelee Shipley (10) advances the ball in Topeka High's 5-0 win over Topeka West Tuesday. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Junior captain Raelee Shiplee knew that the Trojans needed to get a game under their belts in order to know what to work on.
“We just had to come out with intensity and communication,” Shiplee said. “After the first game, I think we learned how each other plays. So, I think it will help us more along the road during other games to know how each other plays.”
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural's girls soccer team has advanced to the Class 6A Final Four the past 10 seasons and Brian Hensyel's Junior Blues have extremely high hopes again this spring.
Washburn Rural senior Kate Hinck had a goal and two assists in Rural's 5-0 season-opening win over Olathe South. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Rural flashed their potential in Tuesday's season opener, rolling to a 5-0 shutout non-league victory over Olathe South at McElroy Field.
"We got to start the year with a really good opponent and any time you can play somebody from the Kansas City area and have a nice win, it's good,'' Hensyel said.
Multiple Junior Blues got a late start to practice due to Washburn Rural's appearance in the 6A state basketball tournament and Rural was out of school on spring break last week, but Hensyel was very pleased with his team's '25 debut.
"Any time in any spring sport it's just kind of crazy the first three weeks, whether it's the weather, whether it's spring break, whether it's kids still playing basketball you just have to deal with all of that and when you come back from spring break you just hope what we've practiced will work,'' Hensyel said. "We've got a lot to work on, but we had a pretty nice first game.''
Washburn Rural senior Zahra Friess had a goal and an assist in Rural's 5-0 season-opening win over Olathe South. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
The Junior Blues, who have placed third in 6A the past two seasons, got the only goal they would need at the 31:14 mark of the opening half on a goal from senior newcomer Zahra Friess and Rural also got first-half goals from seniors Delaney Hill and senior Kate Hinck to build a commanding 3-0 halftime advantage.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University men's basketball is back in the NCAA Division II Elite Eight for the first time since 2001 and will continue its national championship bid with a quarterfinal matchup against Lenoir-Rhyne at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday in Evansville, Ind.
Brett Ballard's Washburn Ichabods will take a 29-3 record into Tuesday's national quarterfinal game. [File photo/TSN]
The Ichabods are making their fourth trip to the NCAA Elite Eight, joining the 1993, 1994 and 2001 Washburn squads.
Washburn (29-3) advanced to the Elite Eight with a 93-65 win over Minnesota State-Moorhead last Tuesday in the Central Region final in Lee Arena, capping a dominant regional performance that also included wins over Harding (85-57) and Concordia-St. Paul (94-78).
The Ichabods have had a full week off since the win over Minnesota State-Moorhead and Washburn coach Brett Ballard said the team's major focus has been on maintaining its sharpness heading into the Elite Eight.
"Keeping our edge is the biggest thing,'' said Ballard, who has led the Ichabods to five NCAA postseason appearances in eight seasons. "I want us to keep our edge.
"I thought going into the regional coming off a loss we had some really competitive practices and I thought we got better. I really want our guys to keep that edge this week. We're not going to overdo it and we'll take care of their bodies, but when we do get (on the floor) I want it to be competitive and at high intensity.''
Lenoir-Rhyne, 29-5 and winner of its last nine games, defeated North Carolina-Pembroke 76-74 in overtime to advance to its first Elite Eight in program history.
The Ichabods enter the Elite Eight as the No. 4 seed while Lenoir-Rhyne of the South Athletic Conference is the No. 5 seed.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University 6-foot-8 senior standout Andrew Orr knows there's nothing he can do about the fact that his outstanding college basketball career will come to an end this week in the NCAA Division II Elite Eight championships in Evansville, Ind.
Washburn senior star Andrew Orr hoists the NCAA Central Regional trophy after scoring 17 points in his final home game. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
But the one thing that Orr has done is make sure he cherishes each and every moment he has left with his beloved Ichabods.
"I've been trying to think about it since we were told we were going to host the region,'' Orr said. "That's when I kind of came to terms with the fact that this is my last go around. (I knew) these were going to be my last couple of practices in Lee, these were going to be our last games in Lee, so it made me not only appreciate what I've done but appreciate what there was still to come.
''These last three (Central Regional) games were the most attended games that I've ever played in in Lee, so to do that and to really take it all in and soak it all in before the games I feel like I've had that opportunity and I feel super blessed to have seen that ahead of time and not look back in the future and be like, 'I should have taken it in.' ''
Orr plans to continue to take everything in as the No. 4-seeded Ichabods begin what they hope will begin a three-game run in the Elite Eight, beginning with Tuesday night's 8:30 p.m. quarterfinal against No. 5 Lenoir-Rhyne (29-5).
