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By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
LAWRENCE – No. 7-ranked (Class 6A) Topeka High avenged its 2022 state quarterfinal loss to No. 8 Blue Valley with a thrilling 56-51 win in Saturday's championship game of the Firebird Winter Classic.
Topeka High's girls basketball team poses for a team picture Saturday after winning the Firebird Classic championship. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Topeka High celebrates in its hudddle after Saturday's 56-51 win over Blue Valley in the championship game of the Firebird Classic. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Topeka High coach Brittney Redmond's whiteboard said, 'You owe them,' and although Redmond wasn't the coach last year when the Lady Trojans lost to Blue Valley in the state tournament, she echoed this game's importance to the players.
"Before this game, I told them you owe them something," Redmond said. "We kind of got off to a rough start and dug a hole for ourselves, but our halftime talk was that we were beating ourselves.
"It was all about effort and who wanted it more. If we could control our effort and give everything we got, we were going to win this game."
A key component to Blue Valley's squad is Oklahoma State commit Jayden Wooten. Wooten ended Topeka High's season last year on a driving layup as time ran out. On Saturday afternoon, that was on the mind of Topeka High.
"Coming into this game, I didn't know if we were going to stop (Wooten), but our game plan was to contain (Wooten)," Redmond said. "We had to play tight defense on her, but I told Keimara (Marshall) to take a step back and force her to shoot the ball."
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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
When Hayden and Spring Hill met in the Wildcats' season opener it took a dramatic comeback from a 19-point deficit as well as an overtime period for Hayden to outlast the Broncos.
Hayden poses for a team picture Saturday after winning the Wellsville Top Gun Tournament championship with a 48-39 win over Spring Hill. [Twitter/Hayden Girls Basketball]
Saturday's rematch wasn't quite as dramatic, but even more important, with No. 10-ranked (Class 4A) Hayden taking control in the second half to win the Wellsville Top Gun Tournament championship with a 48-39 win over the Broncos.
With Saturday's win Hayden avenged a loss to Spring Hill in the 2022 Wellsville championship game.
Hayden trailed by a point (11-10) at the end of the first quarter and led by just a point (18-17) at halftime before outscoring the Broncos by a 30-22 margin in the second half.
"I thought we really guarded well and when we got the lead really played with poise and made smart decisions,'' Hayden coach Carvel Reynoldson said.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Senior star Kiki Smith scored 36 points in three quarters of action as Topeka High's girls advanced to Saturday's Firebird Classic championship game with a 69-37 semifinal win over Goddard Eisenhower Friday night at Free State, improving to 10-3 on the season.
Topeka High senior Kiki Smith scored 36 points in just three quarters as the Trojans rolled to a 69-37 win over Eisenhower Friday night in the semifinals of the Firebird Classic. [File photo/TSN]
The seventh-ranked (Class 6A) Trojans took control with a 22-12 first quarter and opened up a 37-21 halftime advantage.
Topeka High used a 22-10 third quarter to take a 59-31 lead and cruised the rest of the way.
Smith canned six 3-pointers against Eisenhower while junior Ladaysha Baird added 11 points for Topeka High with three 3-pointers.
Topeka High will face 8-3 Blue Valley in the tournament championship game, with the No. 8-ranked Tigers advancing with a 59-38 win over No. 5 Lawrence.
The championship game is a rematch of last season's 6A state tournament first-round game between Topeka High and Blue Valley, with the Tigers taking a one-point win in that game.
SEAMAN GIRLS 45, DERBY 39 -- No. 1-ranked (Class 5A) Seaman posted a 45-39 statement win over No. 4-ranked (6A) Derby in Friday night's semifinals of the the Glacier's Edge Tournament..
Seaman, which improved to 10-1, led 25-19 at halftime over Derby, last year's 6A runner-up, and held off the Panthers the rest of the way.
Seaman advanced to Saturday's championship game to take on tournament host and former Centennial League rival Emporia.
The 12-1 Spartans, ranked No. 4 in 5A, advanced with a 53-52 win over Wichita Heights.
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By KYLE MANTHE
Special to TopSports.news
The Shawnee Heights boys didn’t have the start that they wanted Friday night at Hayden when they went down 2-0 before the clock started due to a pregame technical foul.
The situation looked even worse when they faced a 12-point deficit in the first quarter. But from that point on the Thunderbirds were able to swing the game around by 19 points, winning 58-51 on the road at Class 4A No. 10 Hayden.
Shawnee Heights junior Brennon Dodge drives against Hayden senior Jake Muller in Friday's 58-51 T-Bird win at Hayden. Dodge led Heights with 14 points. [Photo by Sarah Carson/Special to TSN]
“It was the intensity,” said Shawnee Heights coach Ken Darting. “It was an effort thing, it wasn't a structural thing. We came out and didn’t want to give full effort and they forced us to give it.”
In the first four minutes of action it was all Wildcats, led by senior Joe Otting and junior Jacob Padilla. The two combined for 13 of Hayden’s 18 first-quarter points, tying what Shawnee Heights would get as a team in the period.
The T-Birds were kept in the game early by two 3-pointers from junior Dylan Sanchez. The rest of the starters joined in late, going on a 7-0 run to close the first quarter.
Shawnee Heights maintained the momentum into the second quarter, going on a 10-0 run to take a lead. Five players scored in the quarter for the T-Birds but the run was started on the defensive end where they held Hayden to just six points in the quarter, and only two from the Wildcats’ starting lineup to lead 27-24 at the break.
“Jayden Holly and Jaye Jones were the MVPs of the game and neither of them hardly took a shot, they made the difference on both ends,” Darting said. “Once Jayden came in in the first half we totally turned it around.”
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By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
The wins have been hard to come by for the Topeka High boys basketball team.
But with the losses that stacked against them, the Trojans haven't let doubt shatter their confidence.
One thing that stands out about this particular Topeka High team in the 2022-2023 campaign is its mental toughness, with the Trojans finding ways to combat adversity and not crumble when things get rugged.
Topeka High boys basketball coach Geo Lyons talks to his team during Friday's 47-43 non-league win over Sunrise Christian Academy. [Photo by Isaac Deer/TSN]
And Topeka High's confidence was elevated Friday night after a 47-43 home victory over Sunrise Christian Academy.
"We've been right there all season long outside of the Blue Valley Northwest game," Topeka High coach Geo Lyons said. "I told the boys that from here on out, every game is a one-game tournament. This win helps us. We are on the bottom part of sub-state. Only the top 16 teams on your side get to go to sub-state, so we need to win games from here on out."
Two of Topeka High's most significant contributors, senior wing player Mason Gomez and sophomore guard Da'Mykel Hales, stole the show on Friday.
Gomez had a team-high 18 points while Hales added 17.
"The (win) was huge," Gomez said. "We desperately needed a big swing. We were tagging up losses. We needed change, and we got it tonight. We have to keep this together. We can get too high on ourselves. We have to stay humble and keep going."
