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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Seaman and Topeka West dominated Tuesday's Class 5A girls bowling regional at West Ridge Lanes, with the Vikings and Chargers combining for one-two team and individual finishes.
Seaman, the defending 5A-1A state team champion, won the regional team title by by a 2,968-2,705 margin over Topeka West while Charger junior Megan Wood won the individual championship with a 629 three-game series while Seaman junior JaeLinn Thetford finished second with a 602 series.
Seaman's girls bowling team, the defending Class 5A-1A state champion, won Tuesday's regional tournament at West Ridge Lanes by 263 pins. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Topeka West's girls bowling team advanced to next Thursday's Class 5A-1A state tournament with a second-place finish in Tuesday's regional tournament at West Ridge Lanes. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Topeka West's Brennna Rutschmann finished sixth with a 552 series while Seaman's Cheyenne Turkin posted a sixth-place individual finish with a 547 series.
With Tuesday's victory Seaman earned its opportunity to defend its state championhip next Thursday at Northrock Lanes in Wichita and Viking coach Bob Benoit was pleased with Tuesday's regional perfomance.
"We've got two freshmen on the team and they were scared to death,'' Benoit said. "And for them to perform like they did today was great. We had a couple of other girls struggling and JaeLinn was struggling with her 10 pins today but they finally regrouped and everything that they did, that's the sign of a champion.
"I feel pretty good (going into state), but we've still got to take it one frame at a time, one game at a time and we're going to work really, really hard the rest of the week. We've got some spare issues we've got to work on a little bit, but we're going to get there.''
Topeka West junior Megan Wood shot a 629 series, with a high game of 255, to win the individual title in Tuesday's Class 6A-5A regional bowling tournament. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
West's Wood, a returning state medalist, has been fighting a knee injury, but put together games of 210, 164 and a final-game 255 to take indiviual honors by 27 pins over Seaman's Thetford.
"I feel great, today felt amazing,'' Wood said. "After I shot that 164 game I was like, 'I've got to get it back,' and I had those front straight strikes and I was on Cloud Nine and I knew I had that win.''
Wood said it was a big bonus that West qualified as a team.
"We picked each other up when we were down and it felt great,'' Wood said. "We did it as a team and I'm just so proud.''
Wood finished 13th at state a year ago and said she's confident going into next week.
"I just want to go out and do my best, do what I can and control what I can,'' she said.
The girls state tournament will get under way at 8:50 a.m. next Thursday, March 2.
CLASS 5A-1A REGIONAL GIRLS BOWLING
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By KYLE MANTHE
Special to TopSports.news
Topeka High boys basketball hasn’t had the regular season it wanted to have, and after dropping a 62-53 Senior Night decision to Junction City on Tuesday the regular season came to an end the same way many other games had.
“I loved how we played in the first half, and how we played in the second half, it was just we shot the same shots, they just didn’t go,” said Topeka High coach Geo Lyons. “Rebounding has been our achilles heel, as you know we’re not the biggest team, we just got to out-tough some people and we got out-toughed today.”
Senior Mason Gomez led Topeka High with 17 points in Tuesday's 62-53 Senior Night loss to Junction City. [File photo/TSN]
Lyons is appreciative of the group of five graduating seniors who have helped him navigate through his first season as coach of the Trojans and has led to improvements down the stretch of the season.
“The crazy thing is I know this group of seniors. I’m a Topeka guy and my boys have been a part of this program so I knew these guys outside of basketball which made it even more special with this group,” Lyons said. “My seniors have played a very big role … I love my seniors.”
T-High closes the regular season out 3-17 and 0-10 in the Centennial League and will have a full week before sub-state action will begin on February 28.
“I actually love that our season ends today and sub-state is a week away so we get a full week of practice. The beauty about Kansas high school basketball is you only gotta win two games,” Lyons said. “I told our boys we got a one-game tournament on Tuesday.”
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By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
ROSSVILLE – It took every ounce of life for the Rossville girls basketball team to prevail in a 61-52 double-overtime victory over a Rock Creek team, which had beaten them nine consecutive times.
Junior Kinsey Perine gave Rossville a big lift in double overtime in the Bulldawgs' 61-52 win over Rock Creek. [File photo/TSN]
It would be an understatement to say Rossville faced adversity in double overtime.
Two of Rossville's leading scorers fouled out with plenty of game time left, shots weren't falling as the Bulldawgs would like, and Rock Creek was fueled full of momentum after trailing for 36:32 of the game and tying the game to go into overtime.
Rossville wasn't supposed to win, but it did, and that's all that matters to the team.
"It's always good to win no matter what," Rossville coach Michael Bell said. "You get the (win), and you're going to sub-state, which is always nice. We haven't beaten (Rock Creek) in a while, and they are a great team. I think if you ask (Rock Creek coach Adam Plummer), he'd say that we both didn't play pretty well. But we are happy with the win."
The Bulldawgs won with great defense, forcing turnovers, junior Katie Spielman's poise in clutch moments and the 10-point performance in the second overtime period from standout junior Kinsey Perine.
Going into Tuesday night's contest, Perine led all classes in Kansas in assists per game (7.3) and was second in the state for steals per game (6.2). Perine's role on Rossville's team is to be the peskiest defender she can be while going out of her way to find the open player on offense.
Perine had to flip her script when top scorers Emma Mitchell and Rylee Dick fouled out. Then, Perine had to put the team on her back offensively and finish the job.
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By KYLE MANTHE
Special to TopSports.news
One week ago, Class 6A No. 7-ranked Topeka High had lost a second straight Centennial League game.
After a 60-25 runaway victory over Junction City on Senior Night Tuesday, coach Brittney Redmond feels a lot better about where the Trojans are.
Topeka High star Kiki Smith scored 18 points on Senior Night as the Trojans rolled to a 60-25 win over Junction City. [Photo by Trevor Falcon/Special to TSN]
Senior Jachiyah Verser (24) takes the ball inside Tuesday night against Junction City in Topeka High's 60-25 Centennial League win. [Photo by Trevor Falcon/Special to TSN]
“As a coach, I’m super glad that we took all of our losses early, cause that is going to give us momentum going into the postseason,” Redmond said. “We have already seen all of the talent that we are going to see, we kind of know what we need to do to win and close out those games this time.”
Closing out the regular season with a win also boded well for the spirits of Senior Nght, which saw all five members of the graduating quintet score after starting the game together and combining for 35 points.
“It’s been fun. Coming in as a freshman, going 20-0 the first season and getting canceled because of COVID, and coming back sophomore year and getting all the way to the state championship,” said senior Kiki Smith who led all scorers with 18 points.
“It’s been really fun just growing together from our freshman year to now, just seeing the progress that all of us have made and I love playing with them.”
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
After dropping a 14-point decision at Shawnee Heights earlier in the season, Seaman dished out a big dose of payback Tuesday night, with the Vikings continuing their late-season surge with a 75-48 United Kansas Conference romp past the T-Birds on Senior Night at Seaman.
Seaman trailed by three points at the end of a 22-19 first-quarter shootout, but the Vikings took control with a 19-6 second quarter, including the final 11 points of the half, opening up a 38-28 halftime advantage.
Senior Aron Davis scored 19 points, including 15 in the first half, as Seaman rolled to a 75-48 UKC win over Shawnee Heights Tuesday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Senior Kaeden Bonner scored 18 points, including an eight of eight performance at the free throw line, in Seaman's 75-48 win over Shawnee Heights Tuesday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
"They really came out strong at their place, and that's what they're capable of,'' Seaman coach Craig Cox said of Shawnee Heights. "So for us to be able to hang with them in the first quarter and then have that little burst into the half was huge, obviously.''
The Vikings followed that up with a 25-11 third quarter onslaught to build a 63-39 cushion and forced a running clock with 6:26 remaining when senior Kaeden Bonner canned two free throws on a Shawnee Heights technical foul to put Seaman in front by 31 points (73-42).
Seaman, which won its fifth straight game, shot 58.7 percent from the field and had five players combine for nine 3-pointers while also going a perfect 12 of 12 at the free throw line.
