By KYLE MANTHE
The Washburn Review
Washburn Rural and Seaman's boys basketball team faced off Tuesday night in a matchup between two teams battling for position in the middle of the Centennial League.
The Vikings would build on the slight lead they had in league play with a 60-50 road win over the Junior Blues to sweep the season series.
“I thought our guys played with a lot of energy, I have a lot of respect for Washburn Rural and what they are capable of,” said Seaman coach Craig Cox. “We were really good in the first half but had to kind of hold on a little bit in the second half.”
The win moved Seaman above .500 to 8-7 on the year while Washburn Rural fell to 7-9 overall in the second night back-to-back game.
“If we want to play we need to play better than we did tonight,” Washburn Rural coach Kevin Muff said. “It was like sitting there December 21st, the last time we played them as kind of a re-run of the same game.”
Seaman senior Gavin Wilhelm scored 21 points on seven 3-pointers in the Vikings' 60-50 Centennial League win over Washburn Rural Tuesday night. [File photo/TSN]
Seaman came out of the gate firing, knocking down three 3-pointers in the first five minutes with two coming from senior Gavin Wilhelm. The burst of offense coupled with turnovers by Washburn Rural gave the Vikings a double-digit lead in the first quarter.
“They get out on us early and hit shots and we don’t respond. And we got to find better ways defensively to respond. They exploited our weaknesses and put the ball where it needed to and made shots,” Muff said.
The Junior Blues would close out the first on a 5-0 run to cut the lead in half and make it 16-11 after one.
The second quarter was high-scoring, with each side hitting shots from the outside. Senior Quincey Kidd knocked down two 3-pointers and scored eight in the first four minutes.
Seaman was still able to build its lead on three 3-pointers by Wilhelm, taking a 10-point advantage into the final four minutes.
“They (teammates) did a great job of recognizing that Gavin Wilhelm had the hot hand, and kept feeding him which led to an outstanding shooting performance on his part,” Cox said of Wilhelm who shot 7-9 from deep in the game.
The Vikings would end the half on an 8-2 run on buckets from four different players as they led 39-24 at the half.
“I was very impressed with our passing, our vision to find the open guy, and the willingness to have our head and eyes up and make that pass to get somebody a good shot,” Cox said.
Another three by Wilhelm, followed by a basket from junior Kaeden Bonner, extended Seaman’s lead to 20 early in the third, but an 11-0 run capped off by a free throw from Kidd put Washburn Rural right back in the game.
The run was fittingly put to an end by another three by Wilhelm and the lead remained above 10 until a last-second shot from Junior Blues junior Tre Morris made it a 47-38 game heading into the fourth.
With a lead the Vikings slowed down the pace to begin the fourth quarter, forcing Washburn Rural to get aggressive.
The change of tempo did what it intended to do, as the lead stayed at nine points at the four-minute mark after a free throw from Bonner.
A steal and coast-to-coast score for him at the two-minute mark pushed the lead back over 10 points.
Junior Jack Bachelor would respond for the Junior Blues, knocking down his fourth 3-pointer of the game, cutting it to eight with just over a minute to play.
That is as close as the game would get down the stretch as Bonner knocked down two free throws to secure the 10-point win for Seaman.
“You got to find ways to take away what their strengths are and we need to be better than what we were tonight, and we can be better,” Muff said. “We got a couple of days to recover and recoup and get ourselves ready.''
Wilhelm’s 21 points on seven 3-pointers led the game in scoring. Behind him, Bonner and junior Aron Davis each finished with ten points for the Vikings, with Davis shooting a perfect 5-5 in the game.
Washburn Rural was led by Kidd’s 20-point performance while Bachelor added 16 points and junior Wyatt Conklin had an efficient night with nine points on only four shots.
“Especially defensively, we can’t continue to give up uncontested looks and easy at the rim baskets like we did,'' Muff said.
Getting back in the win column after losing three in a row moved Seaman to 7-5 in league play while the Junior Blues are 6-6 in the Centennial.
Both teams will be on the road Friday, with the Vikings heading to Hayden and Washburn Rural traveling to Topeka High.
SEAMAN BOYS 60, WASHBURN RURAL 50
Seaman 16 23 8 13 -- 60
Washburn Rural 11 13 14 12 -- 50
Washburn Rural (7-9, 6-6) – Kidd 5-8 8-10 20, Morris 1-2 0-0 2, Bowen 0-0 0-0 0, Hirschi 0-2 2-2 2, Bachelor 5-8 2-2 16, Durst 0-5 1-2 1, Heim 0-2 0-0 0, Conklin 3-4 0-0 9, Ross 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 14-34 13-16 50.
Seaman (8-7, 7-5) – Griess 2-3 2-2 6, Hyman 2-2 2-2 6, Henry 2-6 0-0 4, Bonner 4-9 4-6 13, Wilhelm 7-9 0-0 21, Barta 0-0 0-0 0, Davis 5-5 0-0 10. Totals 22-34 8-10 60.
3-point goals – Washburn Rural 9 (Bachelor 4, Conklin 3, Kidd 2). Seaman 8 (Wilhelm 7, Bonner). Total fouls – Washburn Rural 11, Seaman 13. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – Griess.
