By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The final minutes of Friday's Centennial League basketball game at Hayden got a lot tighter than Washburn Rural girls coach Kevin Bordewick would have preferred.
Washburn Rural's girls celebrate Friday's 40-38 Centennial League win at Hayden. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
But after seeing Hayden rally from a 13-point deficit midway through the fourth quarter to have an opportunity to send the game to overtime, Bordewick was relieved to get out of the Bueltel Activities Center with a 40-38 win.
"It was ugly and we've got to take care of the ball better, we have to understand situations,'' Bordewick said. "We got a couple of five-second counts, but we fought through a lot of adversity and I told them if we can persevere and be that resilient than that's really a good sign to come in here and get a win like that.''
Rural's win avenged an earlier 38-35 home league loss to the Wildcats as the Junior Blues improved to 15-6 overall and 5-3 in the league with their second one-possession win in as many nights.
After trailing 6-5 at the end of the first quarter, Washburn Rural took a slim 18-16 halftime advantage over the Wildcats before opening up a 29-21 cushion at the start of the fourth quarter.
The Junior Blues extended their lead to a game's biggest 36-23 midway through the final stanza on a basket from freshman Brynn Anderson, but Hayden (15-6, 6-3) stepped up the defensive pressure and went on a 14-3 run to cut its deficit to just two points (39-37) with 14.7 seconds remaining.
Anderson hit one of two free throws to push Rural's lead back to three, but the officials ruled that Hayden senior Lauren Borjon was fouled on a desperation 3-point attempt as time ran out. Three-10ths of a second were put back on the court and Borjon went to the free throw line for three shots with a chance to force OT.
After missing the first charity Borjon hit the second free throw before being called for a line violation as she purposely missed the third shot to try to give the Wildcats a chance at a game-tying bucket.
Washburn Rural freshman Brynn Anderson led all scorers with 19 points in Friday's 40-38 Centennial League win at Hayden. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Washburn Rural junior Maddie Vickery had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds in Friday's 40-38 win at Hayden. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Anderson led Washburn Rural with a game-high 19 points with three 3-pointers while junior Maddie Vickery had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds in her second game back from ACL surgery.
I feel like our whole team was doing a good job of moving the ball and getting each other open,'' Anderson said. "We gave up a couple (baskets) towards the end but I feel like we did a pretty good job of getting stops on defense and staying physical.
"It's good to have (Maddie) back as another option on offense and she moves the ball well, so our offense is moving a little bit better.''
.Hayden did not have a player in double figures, but had nine players crack the scoring column, led by junior Emberly Connell with eight points off the bench and sophomore Hailey Schmidtlein with seven points.
Washburn Rural will be at home Tuesday for a Centennial League game against Topeka High while Hayden will travel to Junction City for a league game.
WASHBURN RURAL GIRLS 40, HAYDEN 38
Washburn Rural 5 13 11 11 -- 40
Hayden 6 10 5 17 -- 38
Washburn Rural (15-6, 5-3) – Rutherford 0-5 0-2 0, Hirschi 1-5 0-0 3, Walker 2-5 0-0 4, Anderson 6-9 4-6 19, Carlgren 1-8 1-2 3, Smith 0-1 0-0 0, Vickery 4-11 2-2 11, Hinck 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 14-45 7-12 40.
Hayden (15-6, 6-3) – Schmidtlein 2-8 2-5 7, Foster 1-1 0-0 3, Huscher 1-2 0-0 3, Borjon 1-4 3-5 5, Watts 0-1 1-2 1, Walter 2-6 0-0 5, Wichman 1-3 2-2 4, Mitchell 1-4 0-0 2, Connell 4-8 0-0 8. Totals 13-37 8-14 38.
3-point goals – Washburn Rural 5 (Anderson 3, Hirschi, Vickery), Hayden 4 (Schmidtlein, Foster, Huscher, Walter). Total fouls – Washburn Rural 10, Hayden 15. Fouled out – Walter. Technical fouls -- none.
