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By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
Friday night's Mid-East League boys basketball contest between St. Marys and Silver Lake came down to the fourth and final quarter, and with several lead changes throughout the game, there wasn't a clear runaway favorite until the game's last two minutes.
Silver Lake's Troy Heiman led the Eagles to the hard-earned 55-48 rivalry victory, scoring 13 of his 21 points in crunch time in the fourth quarter.
Silver Lake senior Troy Heiman (30) scored 21 points, including 13 in the fourth quarter, in the Eagles' 55-48 Mid-East League win over St. Marys. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Silver Lake sophomore Jared Johnson scored 13 points, with four 3-pointers, in the Eagles' 55-48 win over St. Marys Friday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Heiman went 5 of 8 from the free throw line and had four 2-point field goals..
Friday night's home win was precisely the momentum Silver Lake needed heading to winter break Heiman said.
"I've struggled on my free throws this year, and hitting those with the game on the line gave me confidence," Heiman said. "My confidence was high tonight. When shots were going down, it just gave me hope. The energy was great in here tonight.
"I have to credit the student section and fans; they brought it. It was packed tonight, and the fans really helped us get that win."
St. Marys forward and Washburn football commit Kellen Hurla didn't make life easy for Silver Lake's players, coaches or fans. The senior dropped 31 points, including 12 in the fourth quarter.
It, indeed, was a marquee matchup between Heiman and Hurla.
"Credit to St. Marys, St. Marys is a dang good team," Silver Lake coach Johnny Roberts said. "They've got great ballplayers. They've been in the state tournament for the last couple of years. We knew it was going to be a dog fight, and it was."
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By ISAAC DEER
TopSports.news
The Class 3A No. 2-ranked Silver Lake girls have lived up to their expectations in the 2022-2023 campaign thus far, with the Eagles' size, team chemistry and high basketball IQ helping them start the season with a perfect record of 4-0.
In Friday night's 59-36 home romp over Mid-East League rival St. Marys, Silver Lake was in control from the opening tip.
Silver Lake junior standout Makenzie McDaniel, going over several St. Marys players to grab a rebound, scored 21 points in the Eagles' 59-36 Mid-East League win over the Bears Friday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Senior Taylor Ross, who scored 10 points, puts up a shot in Silver Lake's 59-36 Mid-East League win over St. Marys Friday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Makenzie McDaniel, a 6-foot-1 junior center, was the ultimate weapon in the win, collecting 21 points and wreaking havoc in the paint.
It didn't matter if three Lady Bears were surrounding McDaniel, Silver Lake threw the ball up to McDaniel constantly, and St. Marys had no answer for her.
"From last year to now, I had been working on my shot and free throws throughout the club season," McDaniel said. "My teammates have my back, and they're always looking for me. They're racking up their assists, and I'm grateful for that. I've seen some improvements and look forward to improving more."
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By KYLE MANTHE
Special to TopSports.news
You only get one chance to make a first impression and the No. 2 ranked Highland Park boys (3-0, 1-0) certainly made one in a 95-42 win over Wyandotte (1-5, 1-2) in the Scots' first Meadowlark Conference matchup ever.
“We are on a mission man, we got a group of guys that are determined … there was a message that we wanted to send to the Meadowlark league,” Highland Park coach Michael Williams said.
Highland Park seniors Tre Richarson (left) and Bo Aldridge combined for 36 points in Highland Park's Meadowlark Conference 95-42 win over KC-Wyandotte. [Photo by Isaac Deer/TSN]
Williams wants his team to win every December game, but also wants to have the team prepared for games months in the future, even if it means changing things up sometimes.
“We can press and trap the whole game and probably get anything we want,” Williams said. “But for a group that has postseason aspirations … there’s things that we got to manufacture and work on in the half-court.”
For Williams, the half-court emphasis started on the defensive end. There was a slow start, with the Bulldogs, led by junior Kamari Murray’s 12 opening-quarter points, jumping out to a 16-11 lead.
“We didn’t want to trap, we didn’t want to double team or whatever, we wanted to stick in the defensive principles in the halfcourt and you could see the score kind of open up a bit,” Williams said. “We are restricting you a little bit, but there is a part of the game that we got to grow at and be better.”
The improvements showed up soon after, with the Scots closing the quarter on an 11-0 run to lead 22-16 after one.
Highland Park didn’t look back, outscoring the Bulldogs 30-11 in the second quarter, with a 20-3 run in the middle part.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
It was Seaman that got to hang a championship banner Friday night, but De Soto did gain a measure of revenge in Friday night's rematch of last season's Class 5A state championship game.
Seaman, which beat the Wildcats 66-47 in the 2022 title game, led for most of the night before De Soto took control in the fourth quarter to take a 57-48 United Kansas Conference victory at Seaman.
Seaman senior Aron Davis, who is coming off a summer knee injury, scored 14 points and grabbed five rebounds in Friday's 57-48 UKC loss to De Soto. [Photo by Brent Maycock/KSHSAA Covered]
Freshman KaeVon Bonner scored 14 points with four 3-pointers in Seaman's 57-48 UKC loss to De Soto Friday night at Seaman. [Photo by Brent Maycock/KSHSAA Covered]
"To their credit, they fought back and did what they had to do in terms of hitting some big shots late and they made the plays they needed to to win,'' Seaman coach Craig Cox said.
Seaman roared out to a 13-3 first-quarter advantage over the No. 4-ranked Wildcats, but De Soto (5-1 overall, 3-0 in the UKC) answered with a 23-13 second quarter to knot the game at halftime, 25-25.
Seaman, 1-3, 1-3, built its lead back to 40-36 at the start of the fourth quarter but De Soto scored the first six points of the final period to take its first lead since early in the first quarter at 42-40 with 5:33 remaining.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Overall, Friday wasn't a stellar night on the offensive end for the undefeated Seaman girls basketball team, which shot just 32.5 from the field and managed just one 3-pointer after hitting 10 treys in its previous game.
But the Vikings were good enough on the defensive end that their offensive struggles were little more than an annoyance as Seaman, No. 2-ranked in Class 5A, never trailed on the way to a 47-36 United Kansas Conference win over No. 6 De Soto at Seaman.
Junior Brooklyn Gormley, splitting two De Soto defenders, led Seaman with 12 points in the Vikings' 47-36 UKC win Friday night at Seaman. [Photo by Brent Maycock/KSHSAA Cove
"We played our tails off defensively,'' said Seaman coach Matt Tinsley, whose Vikings improved to 5-0 overall and 4-0 in the UKC. "De Soto's a good team and we knew it was going to be a battle. We knew we were going to have to play hard defensively and I told the girls in practice yesterday, 'I'm going to ask you in the second half, when was the last time they ran their offense?'
"That was our emphasis. They can shoot and we had to guard the 3 line and we did that tonight. It was a tough defensive effort. I told the girls that we wanted to keep them from doing what they practice every day and I thought we did that.''
