By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Seaman's boys basketball team bounced back from a tough Tuesday loss to Highland Park with a wire-to-wire run Friday night, ending the 2021 portion of its schedule with a 58-50 Centennial League win over Washburn Rural at Seaman.
Seaman, which lost to Highland Park on a late follow shot after a frantic comeback, took control early against Washburn Rural, opening up a 39-21 halftime advantage and leading 47-26 after three quarters.
Seaman had fallen behind by 18 points on Tuesday against Highland Park but got out of the gate with a bang Friday, leading 6-0 and 15-4 early.
"We talked about being the aggressor and kind of felt like that's what Highland Park had done to us and got us on our heels and it took us a long time to recover,'' Seaman coach Craig Cox said. "Tonight we wanted to take that role ourselves and I thought we did a good job with that, especially defensively.''
Seaman junior Kaeden Bonner (13) paced the Vikings with a game-high 17 points in Friday's 58-50 win over Washburn Rural. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The Vikings, who improved to 3-2 overall and in the league, rode their balance to Friday's win, with four players scoring 12 or more points in the win.
Junior Kaeden Bonner led the way for Seaman with a game-high 17 points while senior Ty Henry added 14 points and seniors Mateo Hyman and Gavin Wilhelm scored 12 apiece.
Seaman shot a sparking 65.7 percent from the field, with Bonner hitting seven of eight shots, Henry going six of eight and Wilhelm hitting all four of his shots, including three 3-pointers.
Seaman senior Gavin Wilhelm scored 12 points and hit three 3-pointers in the Vikings' 58-50 Centennial League win over Washburn Rural Friday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The Vikings led by as many as 25 points (47-22) in the third quarter and by 21 (49-28) early in the fourth before Washburn Rural (2-3, 2-3) ended the game with a 22-9 run as Seaman emptied its bench.
Cox said it was good for his team to end its pre-holiday slate on a positive note.
"Definitely it's good for us and lifts our spirits,'' Cox said. "Our bench is kind of short right now so those guys who are playing a lot of minutes are going to need this break to kind of re-charge their batteries and we'll work some things out.
"We need to improve our consistency and then learn how to finish games when we have a nice lead.''
Senior Quincey Kidd led the Junior Blues with 12 points while junior Jack Bachelor added nine points.
SEAMAN BOYS 58, WASHBURN RURAL 50
Washburn Rural 7 14 5 24 -- 50
Seaman 15 24 8 11 -- 58
Washburn Rural (2-3, 2-3) -- Kidd 4-7 2-2 12, Morris 2-4 0-0 6, Hirschi 1-5 0-0 2, Bachelor 2-7 3-4 9, Howard 0-1 1-2 1, Hanks 0-0 0-0 0, Durst 1-5 2-2 4, Bowen 2-3 0-0 5, JC Heim 2-3 3-4 7, Ross 0-2 0-0 0, Conklin 1-3 0-0 2, Bunck 1-3 0-0 2, Ja. Heim 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-43 11-14 50.
Seaman (3-2, 3-2) -- Griess 1-6 0-0 3, Hyman 5-9 2-4 12, Henry 6-8 2-5 14, Bonner 7-8 2-2 17, Wilhelm 4-4 1-3 12, Barta 0-0 0-0 0, Freeman 0-0 0-0 0, Finley 0-0 0-0 0, Selbach 0-0 0-0 0, Phillips 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-35 7-14 58.
3-point goals -- Washburn Rural 7 (Kidd 2, Morris 2, Bachelor 2, Bowen), Seaman 5 (Wilhelm 3, Griess, Bonner). Total fouls -- Washburn Rural 19, Seaman 15. Fouled out -- none.
