By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
This time, close won't be enough.
After finishing second to Washburn Rural in the Class 6A girls state championship game two seasons ago, Hannah Alexander's Topeka High team rolled to a 25-0 record and a semifinal berth last March before having title shot No. 2 wiped out by COVID-19.
And while the Trojans received a lot of condolences and well-wishes after last year's sudden end to the year, it didn't really help much, so Topeka High is determined to end its "Third Year Is The Charm'' tour with the coveted state championship, which would be High's first girls crown since 1982.
"We're tired of the getting so close and the 'Oh, almost, and you should have and oh, you guys won it virtually,' '' Alexander said. "That doesn't mean anything to these kids, so we definitely want to make sure we come home with the hardware.
"We owe it to this town and to the Trojan family.''
Ja'Neysha Hendricks, who averaged 4.5 assists, will be one of five Topeka High seniors who will close out their high school careers in the Class 6A state tournament. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
After beating Washburn Rural 72-52 in last Saturday's sub-state final, the Trojans followed that up with a 71-36 romp past Wichita Heights in Tuesday's 6A quarterfinal game at High.
"I told them not to be satisfied, don't be comfortable from what we did against Rural,'' Alexander said. "Yes, we celebrate it, and now we've got to move on, so I was proud of them.''
Next up for the No. 2-seeded Trojans is a 7 o'clock matchup Friday night at Wichita State's Koch Arena with No. 3 seed Dodge City (21-1).
Top seed Shawnee Mission Northwest (22-0) will face No. 4 Olathe West (15-5) in the first semifinal at 3 p.m., with the semifinal winners advancing to the 6 p.m. title game on Saturday.
The Trojans took control of Tuesday's quarterfinal with a 22-6 first quarter and 16-7 Heights never got closer than 14 the rest of the night while Topeka High went on to lead by as many as 37 points.
NiJaree Canady, a 6-foot junior, led all scorers with 21 points while sophomore Kiki Smith added 12 points and senior Lilly Smith 9 points on 3 3-pointers as 10 Trojans cracked the scoring column.
Now that High has another shot at the state championship, Canady said the Trojans will do everything in their power to get the job done.
"It means everything, especially for the seniors,'' Canady said. "They deserve the state title, so I feel like the whole team is going to go out and try to get this because, if anything, they deserve it.
"We've been playing hard like three years now and I feel like we need a state title, especially for our seniors. It would mean a lot.''
Lilly Smith will be playing her final state tournament for the Trojans along with fellow seniors Ayana Leesman, Zoe Caryl, Ja'Neysha Hendricks and Jae'Mya Lyons.
Canady averages 20 points, 12.3 rebounds, 2.6 steals and 2.0 blocked shots for the Trojans while Kiki Smith averages 16.5 points and Lilly Smith 9 points.
Senior Lilly Smith averages 9 points for Topeka High, with 40 3-pointers on the season. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The Smith sisters have combined for 78 3-pointers (40 for Lilly, 38 for Kiki), while Hendricks averages a team-high 4.5 assists.
Dodge City earned its place in the semifinals with a 55-30 win over Derby.
