By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
The underdog Topeka West girls scored the first basket Friday night and were still within four points of top-ranked Seaman with two and a half minutes remaining in the opening quarter.
But the rest of the night belonged to the defending Class 5A champs, with the Vikings improving to 3-0 overall and in the United Kansas Conference with an 80-33 romp past West on the Chargers' home floor.
Junior Maddie Gragg (32) scored a game-high 21 points in Seaman's 80-33 UKC win at Topeka West Friday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Seaman senior Anna Becker puts up a shot in Friday's 80-33 UKC win at Topeka West. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
"We talked about it before the game, 'What are three things that we want to accomplish this game that after the game we said we did a good job of those things?' '' Seaman coach Matt Tinsley said. "One was running our offense, which means not settling just for any shot and I thought the girls ran their offense the best we've run so far all year, so they accomplished that.
"And we talked about limiting paint touches and (the Chargers) didn't get too many, so we handled that, and our goal was 60 percent from the field and 75 percent from the line was a goal and I thought our goals played great tonight.''
Seaman ended the first quarter with a 13-0 run and extended the run to 25 straight points with the first 12 points of the second stanza before West (0-2, 0-2) finally scored with 4:45 left in the half.
Seaman ended the half with a commanding 44-14 advantage and scored the final 13 points of the third quarter go in front 71-22 and force a running clock over the final eight minutes.
Junior Maddie Gragg led Seaman with a game-high 21 points, including a 9 of 12 shooting performance while seniors Anna Becker and Ava Esser added 18 and 11 points, respectively, for the Vikings, who had nine players crack the scoring column.
Topeka West junior Imani McGlory (5) led the Chargers with 15 points in Friday's 80-33 loss to top-ranked Seaman. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Junior Imani McGlory led Topeka West with 15 points, including three 3-pointers.
SEAMAN GIRLS 80, TOPEKA WEST 33
Seaman 23 21 27 9 -- 80
Topeka West 6 8 8 11 -- 33
Seaman (3-0, 3-0) -- Stallbaumer 2-6 0-0 5, Becker 8-13 2-2 18, Wilhelm 1-3 0-0 3, Gragg 9-12 1-1 21, Esser 4-5 3-4 11, Ketron 1-1 0-0 3, Miller 2-4 0-0 5, Beaton 3-8 1-1 8, Dreher 2-3 2-4 6, Frickey 0-0 0-0 0, Spencer 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 32-55 9-12 80.
Topeka West (0-2, 0-2) -- Allen 1-1 0-0 2, I. McGlory 5-11 2-2 15, Keeling 3-11 2-4 8, Hall 1-6 2-2 4, A. McGlory 0-2 0-0 0, VanDyke 2-4 0-0 4, Kutina 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 12-37 6-8 33.
3-point goals -- Seaman 7 (Gragg 2, Ketron, Stallbaumer, Miller, Beaton,Wilhelm), Topeka West 3 (I. McGlory 3). Total fouls -- Seaman 9, Topeka West 11. Fouled out -- none. Technical foul -- none.
