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By Andrew Gill
TopSports.news
After losing their first four games of the season, Eric King’s Topeka HighTrojans looked determined to rewrite the script Tuesday night at Hayden.
“We’ve been getting better and better as a team. We’ve been emphasizing teamwork in practice,” King said – and it showed.
Their decisive 59-40 victory over the Wildcats was a true team effort for the Trojans, with eight different players scoring.
Seniors Jalen Smith, Isiah Esquibel, and Jevhyn Wilson led the way with a combined 39 points and 18 rebounds.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
A good indication of how high Rick Bloomquist's expectations are for this year's Topeka West boys basketball team was the veteran coach's mood after Tuesday night's home Centennial League game against Emporia.
The Chargers had just rolled to a 76-50 victory over the Spartans to improve to 6-0 overall and 5-0 in the league, but Bloomquist, by his own admission, wasn't exactly pleased.
"I'm not real happy,'' Bloomquist said with a chuckle. "We expect to win right now. I'm not going to be bashful about it, I'm not going to get into any old cliches about one at a time. I believe all of that, yes, but I don't do this to expect not to win. It's been a hard build to get this place to where it's at right now and we feel very fortunate that we've got the kids we have because I've got some very talented players that work hard for us, but the bar is higher and we're trying to get there too fast.
"We've got to be a little bit more patient, a little bit more poised and it's got to start from the top. That means me, so I'm going in the locker room and I'm going to be patient and poised and tell them how unhappy I am.''
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by Rick Peterson
Top Sports News
JALEY BARKLEY, Cair Paravel Latin
A junior, Barkley scored 20 points, with 3 3-pointers and a 7 of 9 performance at the free throw line, as Cair Paravel took a 46-40 road win at Olathe Heritage Christian to improve to 3-2 on the season.
MARANDA BELL, Shawnee Heights
A junior, Bell won the 191-pound championship at Saturday's Blue Valley Southwest Invitational, recording four straight pins. Ranked No. 2 in Division I, Bell improved to improve to 12-0 this season with 12 pins.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
After scoring the first 19 points in Saturday's 92-34 romp past Junction City, Topeka High's girls basketball team got off to a bit of a slow start Monday night, trailing early at Hayden.
But the Trojans got cranked up over the final three quarters, increasing itheir win streak to 28 games with a 72-33 Centennial League win over the Wildcats.
NiJaree Canady
After trailing 8-5 and 10-8, the Trojans (5-0 overall and in the league) scored the final 4 points of the first quarter to take a 16-12 lead before using a 24-7 second quarter to take control, 40-19.
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Cair Paravel's Noah Hastert goes in the paint for a basket against Kansas City Christian in the Lions' 75-65 win over the Panthers. [Photo by Rex Wolf]
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Cair Paravel Latin boys basketball coach Mike Malloy didn't go into detail about his message to his team at halftime of Monday's home contest against Kansas City Christian.
But Malloy apparently got his point across, with the Lions storming back after trailing by 15 points in the first half to take a 75-65 victory over the Panthers.
"Halftime was one of those deals where we just had to light them up a little bit on taking some pride in their defense,'' said Malloy, whose team improved to 4-3 on the season. "We stunk it up because they had 37 points at halftime and we weren't playing a lick of defense. It didn't matter what we played, we just weren't guarding anybody.
"I guess it was just kind of the threat of what running was going to be like tomorrow that got them going.''
