By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Playing without injured senior starters John Hoytal and Simon Rowley, Washburn Rural boys basketball came within 4.2 seconds of pulling off an upset victory over No. 6-ranked Blue Valley Wednesday night, with the Tigers escaping with a 55-54 road win over the Junior Blues on Brendan Walsh's game-winning 3-pointer.
Sophomore Brooks Ballard scored a game-high 22 points with five 3-pointers in Washburn Rural's 55-54 loss to Blue Valley. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
"I'm proud of our guys,'' Washburn Rural coach Alex Hutchins said. "I'm proud of the way we fought and proud of the way we played. It just comes down to a couple of possessions here and there at the end, just a little bit of execution.
"I thought we played really, really smart and really sound to the scout until about the last two minutes of the game.''
The short-handed Junior Blues led for much of the night in a game that was close throughout as sophomore Brooks Ballard powered 9-6 Rural with a game-high 22 points and five 3-pointers, but Walsh, a junior, scored the Tigers' final seven points as Blue Valley improved to 11-5.
"When the other team's got the best player in the gym, you try to make other people make plays and we let their best player score their last seven points,'' Hutchins said. "We've got to be smarter than that. We've got to make someone else do it.''
Blue Valley led 13-11 at the end of the opening quarter, but Ballard scored the final five points of the first half to give the Junior Blues a 27-21 at the break.
Rural went up by eight points (29-21) on a bucket by junior Cooper Schmidt to open the second half, but Blue Valley battled back to tie the game at 38-38 entering the fourth quarter.
There were two ties and three lead changes the rest of the way, including four straight points by Ballard to give Rural a 54-52 advantage with 11.6 seconds left before Walsh struck the final blow for the Tigers.
Washburn Rural junior Cooper Scmidt scored eight points and grabbed 10 rebounds in Wednesday's 55-54 loss to Blue Valley. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Ballard was the lone Junior Blue in double figures while 6-foot-10 Schmidt scored eight points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
Senior Enoch Rodriguez led Blue Valley with 17 points while junior Jacob Lockett added 10 points.
Washburn Rural will return to Centennial League play on Friday at Topeka High.
BLUE VALLEY BOYS 55, WASHBURN RURAL 54
Blue Valley 13 8 17 17 -- 55
Washburn Rural 11 16 11 16 -- 54
Blue Valley (11-5) – Lockett 4-5 0-0 10, Walsh 4-10 4-4 14, Lonergan 1-3 0-2 3, Rodriguez 6-13 2-2 17, Sogard 4-8 0-1 8, Jarrell 0-1 0-0 0, Comfort 1-4 1-1 3. Totals 20-44 7-10 55.
Washburn Rural (9-6) – Ballard 8-14 1-3 22, Wright 1-4 0-0 2, O'Connor 2-6 3-3 7, Chooncharoen 2-7 1-2 6, Schmidt 4-6 0-1 8, Nimz 2-2 0-2 4, Bradley 2-3 1-1 5. Totals 21-42 6-12 54.
3-point goals – Blue Valley 8 (Rodriguez 3, Lockett 2, Walsh 2, Longegan), Washburn Rural 6 (Ballard 5, Chooncharoen). Total fouls – Blue Valley 13, Washburn Rural 13. Fouled out – none. Technical fouls -- none.
