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Trojan girls roll to 74-35 Senior Night win over district rival West
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Playing its first of two back-to-back games, Topeka High girls basketball did exactly what Trojans coach Ron Slaymaker wanted to see Monday night, tuning up for Tuesday's Centennial League road game at Washburn Rural with a 74-35 win over USD 501 rival Topeka West on Senior Night at High.
Junior Ahsieyrhuajh Rayton came off the bench to score a game-high 22 points Mondsay night in Topeka High's 74-35 win over Topeka West [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Topeka High, which improved to 14-8 on the season, took control early which allowed the Trojans to work on different aspects of their game while Slaymaker was able to empty his bench, playing 14 different players.
"We've got a pretty big game tomorrow night and we tried do some different things tonight that we would have done in practice and we got to do that in game conditions and that's kind of what we wanted,'' Slaymaker said.
Slaymaker said he's not worried by the fact that the Trojans are playing on back-to-back nights.
"The conditioning factor, most kids this time of year, they can play two games in a row,'' Slaymaker said. "Three, that's a stretch, but two in a row I've never worried about.''
The Trojans, who have now won eight straight games, jumped out to 20-8 first-quarter lead and were in command 41-14 at the half.
Topeka High led by as many as 42 points (65-23) late in the third quarter and took a 65-26 advantage into the fourth quarter, forcing a running clock.
The Trojans started all five of their seniors Monday night, with High junior Ahsieyrhuajh Rayton coming off the bench to score a game-high 22 points and lead four Trojans in double figures.
Seniors Keimara Marshall and Sasha Gotru backed Rayton with 14 and 12 points while sophomore Hailey Caryl had 11 points and nine rebounds off the bench.
Topeka West was short-handed for Monday's game, playing without injured senior Addaline Hall and lost junior Aveah McGlory to an injury in the second half.
Junior Sydney VanDyke paced the Chargers (5-16) with 10 points while junior Patience Allen added eight points.
Topeka West will also play back-to-back nights, hosting Turner in a United Kansas Conference contest on Tuesday.
TOPEKA HIGH GIRLS 74, TOPEKA WEST 35
Topeka West 8 6 12 9 -- 35
Topeka High 20 21 24 9 -- 74
Topeka West (5-16) – Allen 4-9 0-0 8, Gonzales 0-7 0-0 0, VanDyke 3-9 4-6 10, Kutina 0-3 0-0 0, McGlory 2-4 0-0 4, Ogles 3-6 2-4 8, Perkins 1-2 3-4 5, Robinson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-48 6-10 50.
Topeka High (14-8) – Short 1-3 0-0 2, Triplett 1-2 0-0 2, Whayne 0-0 0-0 0, Marshall 6-12 2-2 14, Gotru 5-6 1-1 12, Hartz 2-4 0-0 4, Rayton 10-19 0-0 22, Caryl 5-10 1-2 11, Brown 1-1 0-0 2, Marshall 0-0 0-0 0, Martin 1-3 0-0 3, Conley 1-3 0-0 2, Robbins 0-1 0-0 0, Cortez 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 33-64 4-5 74.
3-point goals – Topeka High 4 (Rayton 2, Gotru, Martin). Total fouls – Topeka West 4, Topeka High 8. Fouled out – none. Technical fouls -- none.
Ichabod softball fights through winter weather to improve to 17-3
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
This past weekend was more suited for the Winter Olympics than it was for softball, but host Washburn University did what it needed to on and off the field to get the Washburn Invitational in the books.
Washburn senior pitcher Sadie Walker improved to 8-1 Sunday with a five-hitter in the Ichabods' 5-1 win over Minnesota State-Crookston. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Washburn was able to get the tournament, which included games at three sites, in the books while dealing with cold weather throughout and Saturday morning snow.
"All these teams, they all have the same conditions and it puts everybody in a tough spot because you travel here, you spend the money and you want to play,'' Washburn coach Brenda Holaday said. "I felt like it was our job to get the fields ready for those teams that wanted to play.
"We had some dads that jumped in and helped out and our maintenance crew here and the folks out at Silver Lake and Washburn Rural did everything they could to get it ready and that's all we could do is get it ready and then leave it up to the teams whether they wanted to play or not. But I felt like we owed it to everybody to do that. I would want teams to do that for us and I think teams overall were glad to get the games in.''
On the field the Ichabods posted a 4-1 record to improve to a glossy 17-3 record on the season.
The Ichabods capped the event on Sunday with a 5-1 victory over Minnesota State-Crookston on Sunday at Gahnstrom Field.
"The loss that we took against Wayne State (6-0 on Friday night) was more of a credit to them,'' Holaday said. "Their pitcher pitched really well against us and we struggled a little bit pitching and gave up some hits we wouldn't normally give up, but for the weekend I was really pleased overall with how we did.
"Today I don't think we hit the ball as well as we did (Saturday) for sure but it feels like 25 (degrees) out there so it's easy for me to sit back here and want them to hit a little bit better, but it's hard to square it up in that. I thought Sadie was really strong for us today and needed to be, knowing that it was going to be a lot harder to hit. It's hard to spin it, too, in this weather and she did a good job.''
Washburn baseball opens MIAA play with series win at Newman, narrowly misses sweep
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The first five batters of Sunday's game reached base for Washburn, 4-6 overall, 2-1 MIAA, with a walk by Ian Luce and singles by Jackson Mervosh and Easton Wasinger, the second scoring a run.
Another run came around to score on an error in the field and Levi Risenhoover plated another with a single into left to make it 3-0.
The Jets (3-10, 1-2) got two runs back on a hit and an error in the bottom of the inning.
In the second Washburn got a runner on with an error before Chase Littrell smashed a home run to right field to get the two runs back. Newman strung together three hits in the bottom of the third inning to pull within one.
Littrell struck again, plating one run in the fourth as he scored Trenton Barry, who doubled.
Kai Bennett finished off his start on the mound with a scoreless fourth inning. A pair of doubles in the fifth, first from Wasinger and then Brandt Beeby boosted the Ichabod lead to 7-4.
In the sixth Washburn got two more runs, one on an RBI grounder by Trey West and another on a single from Luce.
Max Strash entered the game in the fifth and tossed a pair of scoreless innings.
In the home half of the seventh Newman took advantage of a pair of errors by the Ichabods that extended the inning and allowed four runs to come around and make it a 9-8 game.
Washburn left two runners on in the top of the eighth, and in the bottom the Jets scored a pair to go in front for the first and only time in the game.
The Ichabods out-hit Newman 11-10 while also leading in walks 6-5. They committed four errors in the game while the Jets had just two.
Four pitchers combined for nine strikeouts, led by seven in 4.0 innings for Bennett. At the plate Littrell went 2-4 with three RBI while Wasinger and Beeby also had multi-hit games.
