By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural's girls basketball team can't complain about its 5-0 start to the 2021-2022 season.
Now the key for the Junior Blues according to coach Kevin Bordewick is to keep building on that impressive beginning after wrapping up the pre-Christmas version of their schedule with a 51-34 Centennial League win at Seaman Friday night.
"I told them in (the locker room) and they all agree that our ceiling hasn't been touched yet,'' Bordewick said. "We have a really high ceiling and we'll get there, but it's going to be one day at a time and keep plugging away.
"We've just got to have our focus on the next day in practice and we've got to keep getting better.''
Washburn Rural's Jada Ingram takes the ball inside against Seaman's Ava Esser Friday night. Ingram scored a game-high 12 points as the Junior Blues improved to 5-0. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Rural led by just a point (13-12) at the end of the opening quarter, but boosted its lead to 25-18 at the half and pulled away with a 26-16 scoring edge over the second half.
Washburn Rural turned the ball over 16 times on the night, but Bordewick thought Friday's performance was another step in the right direction.
"I don't have a problem with our effort again,'' Bordewick said. "I think we play hard, but we just have to be more efficient and take care of the ball better. I thought our free throws were better (seven of 10), but we didn't get to the free throw line a whole lot.
"It was just our turnovers that were the bad taste in our mouth after this game.''
Washburn Rural sophomore Zoe Canfield (15) passes the ball inside to teammate Jada Ingram in the Junior Blues' 51-34 Centennial League win over Seaman Friday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Sophomores Jada Ingram and Zoe Canfield led a Rural balanced scoring attack with 12 and 10 points, respectively, while senior Emma Krueger added nine points and junior Brooklyn DeLeye seven.
DeLeye and Ingram also pulled down nine and seven rebounds, respectively, while Rural shot 52.5 percent from the field.
Seaman, which fell to 3-2 overall and in the Centennial League, did not have a player crack double figures, with junior Jaycee Schumann leading the Vikings with nine points and sophomore Taylin Stallbaumer adding eight points.
Freshmen Anna Becker and Ava Esser scored six points each for the Vikings.
WASHBURN RURAL GIRLS 51, SEAMAN 34
Washburn Rural 13 12 15 11 -- 51
Seaman 12 6 6 10 -- 34
Washburn Rural (5-0, 5-0) -- Lutz 1-2 2-2 5, Krueger 3-5 3-4 9, Canfield 4-9 1-2 10, Ingram 6-8 0-0 12, DeLeye 3-7 1-2 7, Bagshaw 2-5 0-0 4, Whitmore 0-0 0-0 0, Carlgren 1-3 0-0 2, Brogan 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 21-40 7-10 51.
Seaman (3-2, 3-2) -- Anderson 0-1 0-0 0, T. Stallbaumer 3-9 1-2 8, Becker 3-12 0-1 6, Gormley 2-7 1-4 5, Esser 3-5 0-2 6, Schumann 3-7 3-3 9, J. Stallbaumer 0-0 0-0 0, Smith 0-1 0-0 0, Stuewe 0-0 0-0 0, Wilhelm 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 14-42 5-12 34.
3-point goals -- Washburn Rural 2 (Lutz, Canfield), Seaman 1 (Stallbaumer). Total fouls -- Washburn Rural 14, Seaman 10. Fouled out -- none.
