By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn Rural's boys basketball team has struggled offensively at times this season, with four games with 50 or fewer points, including a season-low 33 points in an early-season loss to Free State.
Washburn Rural senior Griffin Heinen was part of the Junior Blues' huge offensive night Wednesday, scoring a game-high 21 points in Rural's 89-65 win over Topeka High. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Junior Kaden Ballard scored 20 points, including four 3-pointers, in Wednesday's 89-65 Centennial League win over Topeka High. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
But Rural was an offensive juggernaut Wednesday night, never trailing on the way to an 89-65 home Centennial League romp past Topeka High.
"We don't care if we win in the 30s, we don't care if we win in the 80s, just whatever it takes on a given night,'' Washburn Rural coach Alex Hutchins said. "I don't know that I thought it would be that high scoring, but at the same time the offensive was going so we weren't going to mess with that.''
The Junior Blues set the stage for one of their biggest offensive nights in recent memory with a 29-point first quarter and also had a 27-point third quarter en route to their second straight win as four Rural players cracked double figures and nine players scored.
Junior Kaden Ballard came out smoking hot, scoring 11 points with three 3-pointers in the first 4:41 on the way to a 20-point night and the rest of the Junior Blues followed suit, with senior Griffin Durst scoring a game-high 21 points, senior JC Heim scoring 16 points and junior Amare Jones finishing with 12 points.
"That first quarter (by Rural) might have been one of the best shooting performances I've ever seen,'' Topeka High coach Geo Lyons said. "Once Ballard got his 3 to go it was like they were shooting the ball in the ocean. Everybody's level of play raised, so hat's off to them.''
Senior JC Heim scored 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds in Washburn Rural's 89-65 win over Topeka High. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Ballard hit eight of nine shots on the night, incuding four of five 3-pointers, while Durst went nine of 13 from the field with a pair of 3-pointers and Heim hit six of eight shots from the floor and went four of five from the free throw line while also grabbing nine rebounds.
"Kaden did a good job being ready to shoot and hitting some shots early and I thought JC and Griff did a good job of scoring inside and kind of getting us some easy baskets at the rim early to kind of establish that, too,'' Hutchins said.
Washburn Rural, 2-6 overall, 2-1 in the Centennial League, opened up a 29-20 first-quarter lead and boosted its advantage to 45-31 at the half after leading by 16 points late in the second quarter.
The Junior Blues then hit the Trojans with a 27-15 third quarter to open up a commanding 72-46 lead and led by 28 early in the fourth.
Topeka High (3-5, 0-2) showed quite a bit of offensive firepower itself on the night, hitting 10 3-pointers and having four players crack double-figures, but couldn't keep pase with the Junior Blues.
Senior Jalen Freeman came off the bench to lead Topeka High with 15 points while senior Miguel Villegas and junior Jayden Norman added 14 points apiece and senior Isaiah Lyons scored 12.
"We've got to find another level of hard to get to, and that's every part of the game,'' Lyons said. "I'm not just talking about scoring the basketball or defending, but we've got to get to more loose balls, we've got to put more bodies on kids.
"Offensively I think we played well. We scored 65 and we've been averaging 50 points a game, we just didn't string any stops together.''
Washburn Rural is slated to travel to Manhattan for a Centennial League game Friday night while Topeka High is scheduled to host Hayden on Friday.
WASHBURN RURAL BOYS 89, TOPEKA HIGH 65
Topeka High 20 11 15 19 -- 65
Washburn Rural 29 16 27 17 -- 89
Topeka High (3-5, 0-2) -- Lyons 4-12 2-2 12, Hales 2-6 0-2 4, Villegas 5-9 1-1 14, Norman 6-10 0-0 14, Groves 1-1 0-0 2, Freeman 4-10 4-4 15, Fletcher 0-0 0-0 0, Brown 1-2 0-0 2, Woods 1-3 0-0 2, Murph 0-0 0-0 0, Campbell 0-0 0-0 0, McFadden 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-53 7-9 65.
Washburn Rural (2-6, 2-1) -- Jones 4-7 3-5 12, Leonard 1-2 0-0 2, Ballard 8-9 0-0 20, Durst 9-13 1-2 21, Heim 6-8 4-5 16, Hoytal 2-6 1-4 5, Shriver 0-3 0-0 0, Chooncharoen 1-4 2-2 5, Hamilton 0-2 0-0 0, O'Connor 1-3 2-2 4, Gaines 1-2 2-2 4, Ray 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 33-59 15-22 89.
3-point goals -- Topeka High 10 (Villegas 3, Freeman 3, Lyons 2, Norman 2), Washburn Rural 8 (Ballard 4, Durst 2, Jones, Chooncharoen). Total fouls -- Topeka High 17, Washburn Rural 12. Fouled out – none. Technical fouls -- Woods.
