By JUSTIN BURKHARDT
TopSports.news
City and USD 501 girls basketball rivals Topeka West and Highland Park faced off again Wednesday night in a rematch from Dec. 3rd when Topeka West took a 23-point win at Highland Park.
The Chargers finished off the regular-season sweep over the Scots with a 65-33 romp on West's home court.
Senior Addaline Hall scored a game-high 15 points in Topeka West's 65-33 win over Highland Park Wednesday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The Chargers were coming off a seventh-place Glaciers Edge finish in Emporia over the past weekend by defeating Shawnee Mission West 57-54 in overtime and the Lady Scots were coming off a 50-31 win over Kansas City-Washington on Tuesday.
With both teams entering the game off wins 6-foot junior Sydney VanDyke stole the show for the Lady Chargers as she would use her length to turn the game into a block party down low all night long.
VanDyke would get the first basket of the night before the Scots' Zayah Kincade would hit two shots at the free throw line to tie it up at 2-2 before VanDyke would score again to give her team the early 4-2 lead.
Kincade tied things back up at 4 before Charger Patience Allen hit the first of her two 3s to make it 7-4.
Highland Park would go on a 9-0 run with Kincade scoring five more points during the run as the Scots would end the first quarter with a13-9 advantage.
The Scots would start the second quarter with nine quick points to stretch the lead to 22-15, but the Chargers would tighten up and go on a 9-2 run to force a tie at halftime, 26-26.
“We kind of challenged them to come out the second half and put it together and they did, they worked hard and earned it,” Topeka West coach Angie Ketterman said.
The Lady Scots would come out of the locker room ice cold as West, led by VanDyke, would out-score the Scots 25-2 with VanDyke scoring nine more points in the third quarter.
“We have been like that all season where we play better in the second half of games then we do in the first half,” VanDyke said.
Topeka West would end the third quarter with a commanding lead of 51-28. The fourth quarter would see Highland Park try to come up with an answer, but the Lady Chargers would lock the Scots down and out-score them 14-5 in the fourth to finish the season sweep with the 32-point victory.
Senior Addaline Hall led Topeka West with a game-high 15 points while Allen had 14 points and VanDyke 13.
The Scots would be led in scoring by Kincade with 12.
With the win the Chargers picked up victory No. 4, which is huge with postseason around the corner.
“This win is big,'' Ketterman said. "We're now in the part of the schedule that we are going to have teams that we can compete against and go up against, that are more our speed, and we've got to be able to get those wins that we should get to win.”
TOPEKA WEST 65, HIGHLAND PARK 33
Highland Park 13 13 2 5 -- 33
Topeka West 9 17 25 14 -- 65
Highland Park (5-12) -- Kincade 4-18 2-2 12, Cosey 3-16 2-2 8, Jones 3-11 2-6 8, Barnett 0-3 2-2 2, Sanders 0-2 0-2 0, Mitchell 1-1 0-0 2, Inyard 0-2 1-2 1, Atkins 0-4 0-0 0, Cameron 0-5 0-0 0. Totals 11-62 9-16 33.
Topeka West (4-12) -- Hall 5-14 4-9 15, Allen 5-7 2-2 14, VanDyke 5-10 3-4 13, McGlory 3-7 0-0 7, Gonzalez 2-6 0-0 6, Kutina 1-1 1-2 3, Traylor 1-1 1-2 3, Ogles 1-5 0-0 2, Perkins 1-5 0-2 2. Totals 24-56 15-21 65.
3-point goals -- Highland Park 2 (Kincade 2), Topeka West 6 (Gonzalez 2, Allen 2, Hall, McGlory). Total Fouls -- Highland Park 15, West 13. Fouled out - none.
