By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural’s defense still isn’t as good as veteran Junior Blues girls basketball coach Kevin Bordewick wants it to be.
But the Rural coach had a lot to like on the offensive end Friday as the Junior Blues improved to 10-1 with a 63-24 romp past city rival Shawnee Heights at Rural.
The Junior Blues, ranked No. 4 in Class 6A by the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association, shot 51 percent from the field and had seven players combine for 11 3-pointers on the night.
“When you shoot well from the outside it covers up a lot of things, but we’ll take that because there’s been a lot of times where we don’t shoot real well and we struggle a little bit,’’ Bordewick said. “That sure does open things up.’’Sophomore MaRyah Lutz led Washburn Rural with a game-high 16 points and 4 3-pointers while sophomore Alysa Ladson came off the bench to hit a pair of 3s in the fourth quarter and five other players hit a trey apiece, including sophomore Brooklyn DeLeye, who finished with 11 points.
“I think we’re doing a really good job of sharing the ball and looking for the extra pass,’’ Bordewick said.
Sophomore MaRyah Lutz led Washburn Rural with a game-high 16 points and 4 3-pointers (Photo by Rex Wolf / TSN)
But although the Junior Blues did not allow more than 9 points in a quarter Friday and held the 3-6 T-Birds to 11 second-half points, Bordewick still saw some areas that he thinks his team needs to improve on in the second half of the season.
“Defensively I still think we can play a little bit better,’’ he said. “Your shots can kind of come and go, but your defense has to be a solid, consistent thing all the time and right now I don’t think we’re there yet.
“Now we’re making strides to get there, I just don’t think we’re there yet.’’
Rural led 12-4 at the end of the first quarter and led 27-13 at the half before outsourcing the T-Birds 36-11 in the second half to turn the game into a rout.
Lutz hit her final 3-pointer of the night 15 seconds into the fourth quarter to give her team a 49-18 advantage and a running clock was used the rest of the way.
Senior Adysen Burghart led Shawnee Heights with 9 points, but no other T-Birds had more than 6 points.
WASHBURN RURAL GIRLS 63, SHAWNEE HEIGHTS 24
Shawnee Heights 4 9 5 6 -- 24
Washburn Rural 12 15 19 17 -- 63
Shawnee Heights (3-6) -- Showalter 2-4 2-4 6, Brown 1-5 0-2 2, Burghart 4-12 1-1 9, Canady 0-3 0-0 0, Oczko 0-0 0-0 0, Rottinghaus 2-3 0-0 4, Manrose 0-0 0-0 0, Fleischer 0-2 0-0 0, 0-2 0-0 0, Hill 0-4 0-2 0, Rantz 1-1 0-0 3. Totals 10-34 3-9 24.
Washburn Rural (10-1) -- Lutz 6-11 0-0 16, Krueger 3-7 2-4 8, Canfield 2-8 0-0 5, Hurtig 4-6 0-0 9, DeLeye 5-7 0-1 11, Ladson 2-3 0-0 6, Bagshaw 1-2 0-0 3, Whitmore 0-0 0-0 0, Carlgren 0-0 0-0 0, Brogan 2-4 0-0 5, Ingram 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 25-49 2-5 63.
3-point goals -- Shawnee Heights 1 (Rantz), Washburn Rural 11 (Lutz 4, Ladson 2, Bagshaw, Canfield, Brogan, Hurtig, DeLeye). Total fouls -- Shawnee Heights 7, Washburn Rural 11. Fouled out -- none.
