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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
Shawnee Heights' boys basketball team isn't scheduled to practice on Saturday and, depending on how much inclement weather the Topeka area gets over the weekend, Heights might not even be able to practice on Monday.
Shawnee Heights senior Jaret Sanchez (3), pressuring Hayden senior Cooper Zwiesler (30), scored a game-high 27 points in Friday's 61-52 win at Hayden. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Shawnee Heights senior Deacon Pomeroy (1) scored 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in Friday's 61-52 win over Hayden. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
That break away from veteran coach Ken Darting could be good news for the T-Birds, because even though Shawnee Heights survived a gutsy effort from short-handed Hayden Friday to improve to 4-1 with a 61-52 non-league road win, Darting was far from pleased with his No. 3-ranked (Class 5A) team's performance against the Wildcats.
"We played offensively and defensively as selfish as hell,'' Darting said. "It's that simple. Everybody wanted steals. We're going to play Hayden and beat them by 40, so I don't have to guard somebody, I've got to run around and see if I can get a steal.
"After a game I like to go home and, good or bad, look at a film, but I didn't see anything good tonight that I can think of. What I'm saying is that if you're getting all your points on freelance, fall-aways, step-aways, double-clutches you're not going to win against good teams. You're playing St. Thomas Aquinas tonight we lose by 25. You aint winning when it matters when we play like we did tonight on either end.
"I'm not going to say we don't play hard, we play hard. We're just selfish both ways. Both sides of the ball we're just selfish.''
Shawnee Heights actually went wire to wire for its third straight win, but Hayden, which played without injured sophomore guard Mason Becker, was still within four points twice in the final period before the T-Birds were finally able to put the Wildcats away.
Seniors Jaret Sanchez and Deacon Pomeroy combined for 50 points -- 27 for Sanchez, 23 for Pomeroy -- but the rest of Shawnee Heights' team combined for just 11 points.
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By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
Hayden girls basketball coach Carvel Reynoldson has seen his team play a lot better than the Wildcats did Friday in their 2025 debut.
But thanks to a huge first half from senior Norma Greco and double-figure performances from all four players who cracked the scoring column, the third-ranked (Class 4A) Wildcats played plenty well enough to take a 60-47 non-league win over Shawnee Heights at Hayden.
Senior Norma Greco led Hayden with a game-high 17 points in Friday's 60-47 home win over Shawnee Heights. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
"We practiced really well over break and moved the ball really well and were strong with it,'' Reynoldson said. "So I don't know if the emotion of being in front of our home crowd for the first real tough game got the best of us or what, but it was definitely sloppy.''
Hayden, which improved to 6-0, trailed a couple of times early but the Wildcats took an 11-10 lead at the 2:54 mark of the opening quarter on a hoop from senior Brylee Meier and never trailed again.
The Wildcats led 19-14 at the end of the quarter and led by as many as 13 points in the second stanza before taking a 38-27 advantage to the locker room at the half.
Greco was the catalyst for the Wildcats, scoring 15 points in the half with four 3-pointers on the way to a game-high 17-point game.
"Norma had been struggling scoring,'' Reynoldson said. "She had been doing a lot of other things really well, but it was good to see her break through.''
After the Wildcats pushed their lead to 47-29 with 3:12 left in the third quarter on a Meier 3-pointer, the 3-2 T-Birds ended the quarter with six straight point to cut their deficit to 47-35.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University women's basketball starts the new year with another chapter against its most storied rival, with the Ichabods facing Emporia State at 4 p.m. on Saturday in Emporia's White Auditorium.
unior Yibari Nwidadah averages team-highs of 17.6 points and 7.5 rebounds for Washburn, which opens 2025 Saturday at Emporia State. [File photo/TSN]
Washburn is 6-7 on the year overall and 0-3 in the MIAA after falling 85-72 on the road to Central Missouri on Dec. 21 in its final game of 2024 while Emporia State moved to 7-5 on the year and 2-1 in the MIAA after defeating Central Missouri 70-66 on Thursday at home.
Saturday's meeting with Emporia State will be the 114th all-time meeting between the two teams.
Junior Yibari Nwidadah leads Washburn with a 17.6 scoring average while shooting a team-high 71.8 percent from the field and grabbing a team-best 7.5 rebounds. Nwidadah has started all 11 games she has played and has shot over 50.0 percent in every game this season while recording two double-doubles. The Olathe North product has the best field goal percentage in the nation.
With 178 career offensive rebounds Nwidadah is ninth in program history and is eight boards away from moving up to No. 8. In overall rebounds she ranks 24th in Washburn history with 473.
Junior Payton Sterk is scoring 15.6 points a game while starting all 13 contests and playing a team-high 29.7 minutes per game. Sterk is shooting 44.0 percent from the floor and a team-high 39.2 percent from deep while dishing out 2.6 assists a game. The Colorado Springs native has drilled a team-high 29 3-pointers.
Former Bishop Miege star Gabi Giovannetti is averaging 11.3 points for the Ichabods, with the junior starting all 13 games and playing 26.3 minutes a game. She is second on the team with 20 made triples and has made a 3-pointer in all but two games.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
No. 2-ranked Washburn University men's basketball will make its 2025 debut at 1:40 p.m. Saturday in Emporia, facing rival Emporia State in White Auditorium.
Senior Andrew Orr has now scored 1,051 career points entering Saturday's MIAA road game against Emporia State. [File photo/TSN]
The Ichabods are 12-0 overall and 3-0 in the MIAA after picking up a 70-52 win over Central Missouri on Dec. 21 in their last action. The Hornets are 4-8, 1-2 after falling 72-69 to Central Missouri at home on Thursday.
Saturday's contest is the MIAA Game of the Week on 38 TheSpot in Kansas City.
The Ichabods and Hornets will play again on Jan. 15 in Topeka, 11 days after Saturday's meeting.
Washburn is off to its best start to begin a season at since starting the 2003-04 season 16-0 en route to the MIAA regular-season championship. The Ichabods are one of five undefeated teams remaining in the NCAA Division II ranks, joining Minot State (15-0), Pace (13-0), Nova Southeastern (12-0) and Daemen (11-0).
Washburn senior Andrew Orr became the 28th member of the Ichabod 1,000 point club with a free throw at Fort Hays State on Dec. 7 and now has 1,051 career points, moving into 22nd all time. Next on the scoring chart is Ron Ford, who scored 1,055 points from 1962-66, and then Topeka West product Alex North who scored 1,082 points from 2010-15.
Senior Jacob Hanna is closing in on 1,000 points in his collegiate career between Washburn and Illinois-Springfield, scoring 912 career points.
Ichabod senior Michael Keegan has 872 career points in 108 career games as an Ichabod and has moved into sixth all-time at Washburn in career blocks with 88. Keegan has also moved into the top 10 on the all-time steal chart with 122 and it leading the MIAA with 29 steals.
WU sophomore Brayden Shorter is fifth in the nation in 3-pointers per game at 3.83 and he's ranked seventh in total 3-pointers made at 46.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
It's been an extremely busy time for Washburn University head football coach Zach Watkins as he began putting his stamp on the Ichabod program since being named the 38th head coach in WU history on Nov. 26.
Zach Watkins, who was named Washburn's head football coach in late November, announced his full-time coaching staff on Thursday. [File photo/TSN]
[Graphic courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
Watkins, a Washburn Hall of Famer and former Ichabod defensive coordinator, took a major step in that process on Thursday, announcing his seven member full-time coaching staff as preparations gear up for the 2025 season.
Former Ichabod star Dane Simoneau is the lone full-time holdover from Craig Schurig's 2024 staff and will serve as WU's offensive coordinator while two other members of Watkins' first coaching staff have ties to the school.
"Making some staff changes, that's never easy, but you have to put your vision on the program,'' Watkins told TopSports.news Thursday. "During that time, with the staff changes there were a lot of responsibilities put on just a few people, but Dane Simoneau and our young coaches (primarily graduate assistants) did a great job of handling all the things that needed to be done as we hired fulltime staff.
"It's been a lot with recruiting, to our current players and making sure their grades and finals are good. It's been very hectic but it's been very rewarding to work through all that stuff. Now, to get the full staff here, we have recruiting visits coming up and all the processes that have to happen with that. The entire recruiting process is accellorating from from what it used to be, so between making the staff changes and the new staff coming in, it's put us a little bit behind, but we're going to rebound just fine.''
Watkins said he's very happy with the staff he's been able to assemble.
In addition to Simoneau, Kaleb Koch, who will serve as WU's defensive coordinator, and Jarvis Harrod, who will coach defensive backs and serve as special teams coordinator, both played for the Ichabods and were graduate assistants for WU.
Watkins' staff also includes former Kansas State star and Oklahoma State assistant Travis Britz while all of the new additions have extensive coaching experience at the high school and/or collegiate level.
"I think the most important thing in a program is the people and that's the players, the coaches, the administration,'' Watkins said. "People make every situation good or bad and wanting to be a head coach and preparing to be a head coach that's the No. 1 thing that you have to be aware of is what people are available to your staff and who can you go after.
"So I had a bunch of ideas of guys I wanted to talk to. I had a lot of conversations for limited spots and I think we've got a very good staff put together.''
Watkins said getting his staff in place was a major milestone but he also knows that he and his coaches will be working non-stop all the way until the opening of the 2025 season in the fall.
"It was the hiring process, right into our current players' final grades, right into recruiting, right into the new semester starting, into workouts and spring ball,'' Watkins said. "It never ends and it's really good to be full go all the time because there's no other way to work than to be all in and do it full speed.''
A look at Watkins' full-time coaching staff:
