After a blistering start Wednesday night Washburn saw its four-game winning streak snapped, with the Ichabods falling 75-67 at Missouri Western.
Yibari Nwidadah scored 23 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in Wednesday's 75-67 MIAA road loss at Missouri Western. [File photo/TSN]
The Ichabods return to action on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. facing Northwest Missouri in Maryville, Mo.
The game opened quickly for Washburn (10-4 overall, 3-2 MIAA) with a 7-2 run in the first 72 seconds after senior Payton Sterk hit a jumper.
The Griffons (5-9, 1-4) battled back and would go in front 9-7 before extending the lead to eight points after a 9-0 run.
The Ichabods answered with a run of their own in a high-scoring first quarter as sophomore Brooke Gomez and senior Aniah Wayne both knocked down 3-pointers before going in front on a 3-pointer by senior Gabi Giovannetti. Shooting 52.6 percent from the floor and 4-7 from deep the Ichabods led 28-26 after the first quarter.
After scores from Sterk and senior Yibari Nwidadah to open the second quarter Washburn remained in front by two, but the next 10 points came from Missouri Western to go in front by eight.
The Ichabods went into the break trailing by six at 44-38 after Nwidadah scored the final six points of the half for Washburn in a quarter that saw them shoot 2-10 from the field.
The Griffon offense stayed hot out of halftime, pushing the lead into double figures and up to as high as 15 points at 55-40 at the 6:02 mark.
Washburn worked to chip away at the lead, with Nwidadah getting it into single digits on a layup with 1:01 left in the third quarter. Missouri Western pushed it's advantage back out to 11 and led 63-52 going into the fourth.
Twice early in the fourth the Ichabods shrunk the deficit back down to nine but both times the Griffons answered with baskets.
Washburn got to the line and shot 9-10 in the final frame but were held to just 3-13 shooting in the quarter and 0-4 from deep. The Ichabods scored the final six points of the game to cut its final deficit to eight.
Highland Park bounces back from loss to take 60-32 win over Schlagle
By JUSTIN BURKHARDT
TopSports.news
Coming off a loss to city rival Topeka High four days earlier, Highland Park's boys bounced back with a big 60-32 Meadowlark Conference win over visiting Kansas City- Schlagle Tuesday night.
The Scots would get off to a hot start, with junior JoJo Kingcannon scoring the team's first 8 points to give his team an 8-4 lead early in the first quarter.
Schlagle would answer with a 6-0 run of their own before the Scots would let them know what the nickname Runnin Scots is all about as they would go on a 25-2 run and go into halftime with a commanding 35-13 lead.
“I thought we were out of position several times in the first quarter. We gave them the lead early on just because we weren’t in rotations the right way,'' Highland Park coach Nate Wallace said. "Once we tightened up, we started buying into sharing the ball, we started sharing it pretty well and pretty often, and it gave us a lot of opportunities to get good looks.”
The third quarter would see the Stallions outscore the Scots 14-9 and leave the Scots with a 44-27 lead going into the fourth.
“We didn’t want to say too much to them coaching wise in the third because we wanted them to figure it out,'' Wallace said. "There is a lot of learning lessons that have to be done, I feel like that was a good, comfortable area to let them try to figure it out and try to get recorrected by themselves, because I am a firm believer in player-led groups, and the one big thing about being a player-led group is you got to take ownership.
"So the third quarter, I sat back and wanted to see and observe a little more if they were going to communicate, if they were going to notice, if the other team was going on a run or not, were they going to slow down, just trying to help grow their basketball IQ’s. And then we talked about it at the end of the quarter, and I feel like we made a stronger force.”
The Scots would outscore the Stallions 16-5 in the fourth to beat the Stallions by 28 points.
The Scots would get huge nights from Kingcannon and sophomore Davion Anderson as Kingcannon would lead all scorers with 21 points on 8-11 shooting and three 3s.
“I put a lot on his plate, I put a lot on his shoulders, he’s been bought in since Day 1,'' Wallace said. "He would do two a days at football and then come into the gym and do basketball. He’s been on varsity for three years now with me being an assistant the last two years.
"I am a firm believer in JoJo, he was a huge part of us last year, and I always knew he can score, and he’s scoring efficiently and that’s what I look for.”
Anderson backed Kingcannon with 15 points, including three 3-pointers.
“I knew from the jump when I got the job and looking at the roster, I was like he is my point guard,'' Wallace said of Anderson. "I told him, 'It is yours to lose.' He’s showing up. He’s staying confident. I tell him all the time as a sophomore, you’re going to make mistakes and I am going to live through your mistakes as a sophomore.”
The Scots have a huge league matchup on Friday as league rival and Class 4A No. 2 and 8-0 Atchison will make the hour trip south to Topeka to face the Scots in a game that has determined the League championship since the Scots entered the league.
“That’s a big breakfast is what we call it,'' Wallace said. "They've got all that you want, They've got bigs, they've got guards, they've got bigger wings and they've got shooters. We are going to stay true to our defensive principles. We are going to make it hard on them and play Runnin Scot basketball, push our way through and see what the outcome is in the fourth quarter.”
HIGHLAND PARK 60, KC-SCHLAGLE 32
KC-Schlagle 11 2 14 5 -- 32
Highland Park 16 19 9 16 -- 60
KC-Schlagle (2-5 1-1) -- Dyer 7-11 1-4 16, White 3-11 2-4 8, Howard 1-3 0-0 3, Frazier 1-1 0-0 2, Jones 0-6 0-2 0, Brown 0-2 2-2 2, Johnson 0-0 1-2 1, Evans 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 12-35 6-14 32.
Highland Park (2-4 2-0) -- Kingcannon 8-11 2-2 21, Anderson 6-12 0-0 15, Montgomery 3-6 0-0 7, Mitchell 3-5 0-0 7, Drew 2-4 0-0 6, Pollard 1-3 0-2 2, Smith 1-5 0-0 2, Nance 0-1 0-2 0. Totals 24-47 2-6 60. 3-point goals — Schlagle 2 (Howard, Dyer) Highland Park 10 ( Kingcannon 3, Anderson 3, Drew 2, Montgomery, Mitchell) Total Fouls -- Schlagle 12, Highland Park 13.
Cair Paravel boys hold on to top Wabaunsee in Flint Hills action, 54-53
By VINCE LOVERGINE
TopSports.news
Cair Paravel Latin boys basketball held on to top Wabaunsee in Flint Hills action Tuesday night on the Lions' home floor.
Lucas Marichal led Cair Paravel with 29 points in the Lions' win over Wabaunsee Tuesday night. [File photo/TSN]
The Lions started out with their foot on the gas pedal for White Out in The Den against the Chargers, and it took every last second to determine the winner, as Cair Paravel Latin grabbed the win, 54-53.
“We knew we were going to get a really tough assignment,'' Cair Paravel coach Chip Kueffer said. "They’re a tough team, they box out and they get a lot of second-chance points. I don’t think we beat that team in a bar fight, it’s not realistic, they’re tough and have more muscle than we do.
"I think we guarded according to the scouting report pretty well … whether we win by half a point or 40 points, they’re all the same. With the game on the line, you don’t want to be down one with 10 seconds left, you want to be up one and defensively you want to win the game getting a stop. I’m proud of them for finishing.”
Senior Lucas Marichal put CPLS on the board with a 3-pointer and he wasn’t even close to being done scoring the basketball.
He put the Lions up 7-2 off a baseline layup and then sophomore Blaine Durbin also had it going, putting them up 11-6 off a short jumper in the paint, 11-6.
Marichal hit another triple to push the lead to six, scoring 10 points in the quarter and Durbin had eight of the 20 CPLS points, with the Lions leading 20-10 heading into the second quarter.
Cair Paravel Latin built its biggest lead of 14, 26-12 in the second quarter thanks to Marichal driving straight down broadway for a deuce, but then Wabaunsee went on a big run to cut the Red Lions lead down to four before the break.
A 9-0 run thanks to a fast break steal from Carter Falk of Wabaunsee, forced CPLS into a timeout with 2:52 left in the quarter, with the score 26-21 at that point.
Falk would nab another four points to cut the CPLS to two but Marichal was fouled with five seconds before the break and nailed two free throws to put Cair Paravel up 28-24.
Cole Frank of the Chargers had a sweet up and under finishing with the left hand to bring it to 32-30, but then Marichal scored five straight to push the lead back to seven, with another 3-pointer. He then would get the steal, get fed on the fast break for another bucket as CPLS maintained a 41-34 lead.
Then to end the quarter, Drew Fay put up a wild shot to beat the buzzer and banked it to end to put the Lions up by 13, 49-36.
Then it got interesting in the fourth quarter as the Lions' lead evaporated again.
It was 51-44 with under three minutes left and Charger senior Wyatt Gerht scored at the cup bringing Wabaunsee to within five but Marichal got fouled again and nailed two free throws to make it 53-46. He finished with a game-high of 29 points.
“We knew that in a lot of games, they’ve been down double-digits in most of their games and they’ve battled back in the second half, so we knew it was coming,” Marichal said. “The fourth quarter was super big for us to slow the game down and try to play it our way… at the end of the day it came down to who played harder and we wanted it more. We want to win the league, that’s our goal and that was one of the biggest teams to reach that goal.
“It was a blast, I love it. It gets so loud in here and when the crowd gets going, it’s a blast.''
Frank, who eventually fouled out in the waning seconds of the game, brought it to within three on a fast break, 53-50.
With 33 seconds, sophomore Landon Kaberline hit one of two free throws to put CPLS up, 54-50. Cutter Murray would not let the Chargers go down quietly, as he converted an and-one opportunity with 26 seconds remaining.
