By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Shawnee Heights girls basketball got off to a bit of a rough start this season while wading through a rugged opening stretch that included a pair of games against Class 6A schools, including No. 2 Shawnee Mission South, as well as a United Kansas Conference matchup with state-ranked 5A power Piper.
Shawnee Heights senior Imani McGlory drives to the basket in Friday's 67-30 UKC win over Topeka West. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
But after starting the year 1-3, Bob Wells' T-Birds enter the holiday break with momentum after reaching the .500 level with back-to-back United Kansas Conference routs.
Shawnee Heights started the week with a tough three-point overtime loss to Manhattan, but bounced back with a 77-point win over Lansing before rolling past Topeka West 67-30 Friday night at Heights.
"We needed to come out and play well,'' Wells said. "What I told them is, 'I don't care what the score is, we need to come out and execute and do the things we've been working on in practice,' and offensively we saw that.
"We've got a long ways to go defensively and just working on defense and working on talking and doing some of those fundamental things a little bit better, but that's something that people have to learn and we've got to do a better job teaching them to get them to where we want them to be ... defensively we're a work in progress.''
The T-Birds, now 3-3 overall and 3-1 in the conference, never trailed Friday after Heights juniors KK Emmot and Sami Baum opened the game with 3-pointers.
Shawnee Heights went on to open up a commanding 22-8 lead by the end of the opening quarter and took a 40-13 advantage to the locker room at the half.
The T-Birds boosted their margin to 60-25 in the third quarter, forcing a running clock throughout the entire fourth quarter.
All five starters had at least eight points for Shawnee Heights, led by Emmot with a game-high 17 points, including a pair of 3-pointers.
Baum and junior Pearmella Carter added 11 points apiece while seniors Reianna Vega and Imani McGlory scored nine and eight points, respectively.
Topeka West (1-5, 0-4) got 15 points from junior Sydney VanDyke while VanDyke and senior Addaline Hall grabbed eight rebounds apiece.
Shawnee Heights will return to action Jan. 2 to host 4A power Hayden in a non-league game while Topeka West will travel to Leavenworth for a UKC game on Jan. 6.
SHAWNEE HEIGHTS GIRLS 67, TOPEKA WEST 30
Topeka West 8 5 12 5 -- 30
Shawnee Heights 22 18 20 7 -- 67
Topeka West (1-5, 0-4) – Gonzales 0-5 0-0 0, VanDyke 4-8 7-8 15, Ogles 1-6 0-0 2, Hall 2-7 0-0 4, McGlory 1-11 0-0 3, Allen 0-1 0-0 0, Kutina 1-2 0-0 2, Traylor 1-4 2-4 4, Fox 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 10-45 9-12 30.
Shawnee Heights (3-3, 3-1) – Emmot 6-13 3-5 17, McGlory 3-6 0-0 8, Carter 2-9 7-8 11, Baum 5-7 0-0 11, Vega 4-5 0-0 9, Hamilton 2-5 1-2 5, Schmidt 2-5 0-0 4, Karlyle 1-1 0-0 2, Moeder 0-1 0-0 0, Doby 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-52 11-15 67.
3-point goals – Topeka West 1 (A. McGlory), Shawnee Heights 6 (Emmot 2, I. McGlory 2, Baum, Vega). Total fouls – Topeka West 13, Shawnee Heights 9. Fouled out – none. Technical fouls -- none.
