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By CHARLES SPURLOCK
Special to TopSports.news
In the locker room following their victory this past Friday night at Shawnee Heights, Seaman girls coach Matt Tinsley wrote 20-0 on the dry erase board. He then quickly erased it and wrote 0-0.
Senior Anna Becker scored 27 points in Tuesday's 59-42 Seaman sub-state win over Topeka West. [File photo/TSN]
That was the mindset the Vikings had as they began this ‘new’ season against cross-town opponent Topeka West Tuesday night in the semifinal round of the Class 5A sub-state playoffs.
The Seaman Lady Vikings continued their undefeated season with a 59-42 victory over the Topeka West Chargers. There were moments where Seaman’s offense was sluggish, but other moments where they had excellent execution.
"We are better when the ball moves to the side, back to the top and to the opposite side. The best thing to do against any defense is to always move and be hard to guard,” Tinsley commented after the game.
For the first five-plus minutes of the contest, the teams traded baskets and the Lady Vikings and Chargers were tied at 11 with 2:20 left in the quarter. Topeka West took their first and only lead of the game,13-11, following two free throws by junior Imani McGlory with 1:37 remaining in the quarter.
Seaman outscored Topeka West 6-0 to end the first quarter, taking a 17-13 lead to the second stanza.
The Lady Vikes extended their run to 15-0 over the first four minutes of the second quarter to double-up the Chargers, 26-13. With a little over four minutes left in the first half, hit a 3-pointer to finally stop the run. The defensive pressure applied by Seaman was the difference as the Vikings held Topeka West to only two field goals in the quarter and led 30-18 at halftime.
“Their zone had us standing and we need to get better ball movement and player movement. We were just settling, one pass and a shot, and when you’re not hitting, it doesn’t look very good,” Tinsley said about the first half.
The Lady Vikes came out of the locker room and executed better on offense. They hit four 3-pointers -- one by junior Maddie Gragg, one by senior Kinley Wilhelm and two by senior Anna Becker plus a free throw from senior Ava Esser -- outscoring the Chargers 13-4 over the first four minutes of the third quarter. The Vikings took a commanding 53-30 lead into the final quarter.
Tinsley commented about their aggressiveness coming out of the locker room after the halftime break, “Our third quarter offense was good against their man and zone defenses. But credit Topeka West, they played hard and hit some shots.”
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By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
The Shawnee Heights girls took care of business on their home floor Tuesday, defeating Basehor-Linwood 39-32 in a Class 5A sub-state semifinal, setting up a big challenge Friday.
Shawnee Heights sophomore KK Emmot led the way with 16 points in Tuesday's 39-32 Class 5A sub-state win over Basehor-Linwood. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The T-Birds built a double-digit lead early in the second half and maintained it until late. With three minutes remaining, Basehor-Linwood collapsed the deficit to five points. Holding the T-Birds scoreless for more than four minutes, the Bobcats then pulled to within three, 31-28, with 1:35 remaining.
Shawnee Heights, led by sophomore KK Emmot, connected on enough free throws in the final minute to hold off the threat.
“We played sharp in the first quarter and continued that through the second quarter,” Shawnee Heights coach Bob Wells said. “We changed some things up on defense that we thought we might try, and it worked out well for us holding them down.
“We knew (Basehor-Linwood) would make it close because we’ve played them enough to know they are never going to give up and they’re going to play hard until the very end. We knew we were going to have to deal with that. I’m really proud of the girls who stepped up and made free throws.”
Shawnee Heights, which improved to 14-7 on the season, attempted 27 free throws in the game, knocking down 16. The T-Birds were led by Emmot’s 16 points. Kaydence Torrez scored eight and Tayler Hanshaw had seven.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
It was before Washburn Rural boys basketball coach Alex Hutchins arrived in Topeka, but he has been told the story about how a few seasons ago Wichita West came in to Rural for a Class 6A sub-state semifinal and knocked off the heavily-favored Junior Blues to end their season.
Washburn Rural junior Simon Rowley dunks the ball for two of his 23 points in Tuesday's 78-50 sub-state win over Wichita West. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Hutchins' No. 3-seeded Rural team made sure that history didn't repeat itself Tuesday, knocking down 14 3-pointers on the way to a 78-50 rout and a shot at a sub-state title Friday night.
"That (West's upset of Rural) was mentioned to me in the very first summer I was here,'' Hutchins I was here. "It was talked about how incredible our environment is here at Washburn Rural with our student section and our crowd and our cheerleaders and our band.
"And they mentioned that there had been one time in the past where I think the band was on a spring break trip and we had a really high seed and kind of a sleepy crowd and it kind of ended up in disaster. So we didn't specifically bring up that story, but we told the boys, 'You can't take anything for granted, you've got to be ready to go.' ''
West (4-17) took an early 5-2 lead, but junior Draden Chooncharoen converted an old-fashioned three-point play and senior Amare Jones hit a 3-point shot to put the Junior Blues up 8-5 and they never trailed again.
Rural led 21-13 at the end of the first quarter and used a 22-9 second quarter to take a commanding 43-22 lead at the half.
The Junior Blues connected on 7 of 12 3-pointers in the half, led by freshman Brooks Ballard, who came off the bench to hit 4 of 4 treys.
Rural continued to rain 3s in the third quarter, opening up a 66-39 advantage at the end of the third stanza after leading by as many as 29 points.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
MIAA regular-season champion Washburn University is well represented on the men's all-conference team announced Wednesday, earning three major awards, two All-MIAA defensive team members, two first-team All-MIAA selections as well as a second-team and third-team pick.
[Graphic by Washburn Athletics]
Earning MIAA coach of the year honors was Ichabod head coach Brett Ballard, who led the Ichabods to 26 regular- season wins this season - one shy of the Ichabod program record of 27 for regular-season wins set by the 1986-87 NAIA National Championship team that went 35-4.
Ballard also led the Ichabods to their first No. 1 ranking since the 1991-92 season and to a top-five spot in the national rankings for 14 straight weeks. The MIAA regular-season championship this season is the 11th in program history and the first since the 2011-12 season.
Washburn senior Jacob Hanna earned four different awards as he was named the MIAA's newcomer of the year, the MIAA's defensive player of the year, a first-team all-MIAA selection and was named to the MIAA all-defensive team.
Hanna is averaging 15.1 points and 5.6 rebounds while dishing out 98 assists. Hanna has reached double-figure scoring in 26 of 28 games this season.
Hanna was joined on the all-MIAA Defensive team by senior Michael Keegan. Keegan leads the MIAA with 66 steals, and he is 11th in blocked shots with 21. Starting all 28 games this season, Keegan has averaged 8.3 points while pulling down 4.9 rebounds per game.
Sophomore Washburn Rural product Jack Bachelor was named first-team All-MIAA with Hanna after averaging 13.6 points over the regular season and 14.3 in MIAA play.
He is second in the MIAA in assists and assists per game and leads the league in assist to turnover ratio at 2.9. Bachelor is also shooting 41 percent from 3-point range during MIAA play while leading the MIAA in free throw percentage, hitting 83 of 95 free throw attempts for an 87 percent clip.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University women's basketball juniors Payton Sterk and Yibari Nwidadah were both named to the All-MIAA second team announced by the conference on Wednesday.
Washburn junior Yibari Nwidadah has been named to the All-MIAA second team while also being named to the conference all-defensive team. [File photo/TSN]
Washburn junior Payton Sterk has been named to the All-MIAA second team while also being named the conference co-newcomer of the year. [File photo/TSN]
Additionally, Sterk earned the honor of co-newcomer of the year while Nwidadah was one of five players selected to the all-defensive team.
Nwidadah earns all-conference honors for the second time in her career and for a second straight season after receiving honorable mention a season ago. The junior led Washburn in scoring at 16.6 points per game while shooting a team and conference high 63.3% from the floor. She tallied seven double-doubles while averaging 7.8 rebounds.
On the offensive end Nwidadah had 11 outings scoring 20 or more points, including a new career high at Quincy on Nov. 16, scoring 29 on 12-16 shooting. She finished the regular season fourth nationally in FG% while ranking sixth in the MIAA in scoring average. She was also named to the all-defensive team for the first time in her career.
Sterk averaged 16.4 points while playing and starting all 29 games, logging a team-high 31.1 minutes per game. She shot a team-high 39.2% from deep and drilled 62 3-pointers, a team-high. The junior guard had 10 games scoring at least 20 points including three 30-plus performances. She scored a Washburn career-high of 33 points with seven made 3-pointers on Feb. 13 against Arkansas-Fort Smith.
