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Class 4A state girls: Five-time defending champ Miege turns back Hayden, 59-42
By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
SALINA -- The Hayden girls had a shot at knocking off five-time defending Class 4A champion Bishop Miege in the semifinal round Friday, but the Wildcats faded in the second half, losing 59-42.
Freshman Hailey Schmidtlein (2) scored 17 points in Hayden's 59-42 Class 4A state semifinal loss to Bishop Miege Friday night. [Photo by Selena Favela/Special to TSN]
The Wildcats will have a short night to recover. They face Buhler in the consolation game at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Tony’s Pizza Event Center in Salina. The Wildcats placed third at Class 3A state a year ago.
After falling into an early hole Friday, Hayden drew back to within four points in the second period. They trailed 23-17 at the half.
But in the second half, every time Hayden tried to narrow the gap, Miege had an answer.
“We started off in a 9-3 hole, and then at halftime I was feeling really good down six,” said Hayden coach Carvel Reynoldson. “But it just seemed like every time we would make a play to cut (into the Miege lead), they would hit a big shot. Next play they hit threes, sometimes by people we didn’t expect to hit them. So that was frustrating.”
Hayden was hit immediately by a 7-0 Miege run out of halftime. They held on to trail by just 10, 41-31 at the end of the third period before running out of steam in the fourth.
“We knew we just couldn’t do the same thing the entire time because (Hayden is) just so talented and they have so many different weapons,” said Miege coach Mike Allen. “We felt like we had to mix up some press, maybe mix in a couple of zone looks and still do our base man. Mixing it up helped us to extend the lead.”
Producing a lot of the big plays in the second half was junior Mary Grant. Having put up five points in the first half, Grant exploded for 13 points in the third period and nine more in the fourth period. She hit all five of her 3-point attempts and all four of her foul shots, finishing with 27 points.
Senior Millie Ramsey scored 10 points in Hayden's 59-42 Class 4A state semifinal loss to Bishop Miege. [Photo by Selena Favela/Special to TSN]
Senior Brylee Meier scored 10 points in Hayden's 59-42 Class 4A state semifinal loss to Bishop Miege. [Photo by Selena Favela/Special to TSN]
Freshman Hailey Schmidtlein led the Wildcats with 17 points before fouling out late in the fourth period. Seniors Millie Ramsey and Brylee Meier each added 10 for Hayden.
Class 5A state boys: Williams' career-high 33 points powers Scots to semifinal
By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
EMPORIA -- Top seed and undefeated Highland Park got everything it wanted from No. 8 Andover Central in Thursday's Class 5A boys state tournament opener at White Auditorium, but senior Mikey Williams made sure that the Scots lived to see another day.
Senior Mikey Williams scored a game-high 33 points in Thursday's 65-56 Class 5A state tournament win over Andover Central. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Williams scored a career-high 33 points, including an amazing 7 of 7 performance from 3-point range as Highland Park advanced to Friday's 4 p.m. semifinal with a 65-56 win over Central.
"I just knew going into it I had to step up,'' Williams said. "We know we rely on Ja'Corey (Robinson) and Jamon (Wilson) and all our other guys to step up, but I know in every game I can't just rely on another guy I know I've got to step up and do it for myself and do it for my team and do whatever it takes to get us to the next round and that's what I had to do.''
The Jaguars trailed by just a 24-22 margin at the end of the first quarter and led 35-33 at halftime before the Scots rallied in the third stanza for a 61-56 advantage.
Hi Park went up by 10 (56-46) on a Williams hoop with 6:19 remaining, but the Jaguars cut their deficit to two (58-56) at the 3:20 mark before the Scots ended the game with a 7-0 run.
The Scots also got 14 points (7 of 9 shooting) and a game-high eight rebounds from senior Isaiah Kelley.
Andover Central, which stayed in the hunt with a 10 of 21 performance from 3-point range, was led by Jayden Brown with 17 points (4 of 8 3s) while Jace Jefferson added 12 points on four treys and Jason Adler also had 12 points.
Highland Park advanced to the state semifinals for the third straight season to face last year's runnerup, Piper, a 70-52 winner over Shawnee Heights.
HIGHLAND PARK BOYS 65, ANDOVER CENTRAL 56
Andover Central 22 13 11 10 -- 56
Highland Park 24 9 18 14 -- 65
Andover Central (14-9) -- Brown 5-13 3-6 17, Degarmo 1-5 0-0 3, Jefferson 4-7 0-0 12, Meschke 1-2 1-2, Adler 5-10 2-4 12, Neal 0-0 0-0 0, Archibald 0-0 0-0 0, Balke 1-5 0-0 2, Stupka 3-7 0-0 7, Inslee 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-49 6-12 56.
Highland Park (23-0) -- Wilson 0-4 1-2 1, Hales 0-2 0-0 0, Kelley 7-9 0-1 14, Williams 12-14 2-6 33, Robinson 1-5 5-6 7, Brown 0-0 2-2 2, Jones 1-2 0-1 2, Kingcannon 3-4 0-0 6, Montgomery 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-40 10-18 65.
3-point shots -- Andover Central 10-21 (Brown 4-8, Jefferson 4-6, Degarmo 1-1, Stupka 1-3, Balke 0-3), Highland Park 7-10 (Williams 7-7, Robinson 0-2, Hales 0-1). Total fouls -- Andover Central 21, Highland Park 17. Fouled out -- Degarmo, Adler. Technical fouls -- Robinson.
Shawnee Heights senior Jaret Sanchez led the T-Birds with 16 points in Thursday's 70-52 Class 5A state tournament loss to Piper. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
PIPER BOYS 70, SHAWNEE HEIGHTS 52 -- After spotting Piper a 13-point halftime advantage, Shawnee Heights gave itself a chance to win Thursday's first-round game before a disasterous start to the fourth quarter ended the T-Birds' hopes.
No. 5 seed Piper, now 20-3, opened up a 21-12 first-quarter advantage and boosted its lead to 39-26 at the halftime break.
But Shawnee Heights (19-4) came to life in the third quarter, outscoring the Pirates 22-11 to get within two points (50-48) at the beginning of the fourth period.
The T-Birds then had an opportunity to take the lead, but missed back-to-back 3-pointers and turned the ball over on its next possession as the Pirates scored the first 15 points of the quarter to put Shawnee Heights away.
"We went out and we fought and 'O' (Ontarius Emmot) was shooting a wide open three to go ahead and misses it and gets a rebound and shoots it again and gets it blocked and they go down and hit a three, so instead of being up one, we're down five,'' Heights coach Ken Darting said. "And when you've played that hard to get back in it ... we just got emotionally drained and tired, physically tired.
"But you can't spot a good team that much and come back.''
Heights went scoreless over the first five minutes of the quarter and was outscored 22-4 over the final eight minutes as Piper took its third straight win over the T-Birds this season and fourth straight dating back to last year's first-round state game.
Phillip Moore led Piper with 18 points while Isaiah Sayles added 16 points and Derrick Jackson 10 as the Pirates shot 60.9 percent from the field, including a nine of 15 performance from 3-point range.
Perennial state power Wichita Heights ends Rural's season, 64-44
By Todd Fertig
TopSports.news
WICHITA -- The Washburn Rural boys’ run to state was ended by the tournament-tested Wichita Heights Falcons 64-44 Wednesday night at Koch Arena.
Senior Amare Jones (0) led Washburn Rural with 16 points in Wednesday's 64-44 state tournament loss to Wichita Heights. [File photo/TSN]
The veterans of the past three Class 6A championship finals had too much experience, too much length and too much athleticism for the Junior Blues in the first-round matchup.
The Junior Blues crawled out of a hole to pull to a 13-11 deficit to close the first period. But they went more than six minutes without a field goal in the second period and fell behind 29-16 at the intermission. The Falcons padded their lead by a few points in each of the next two periods.
Scoring was a challenge from start to finish for Washburn Rural. They hit 14-41 shots, 5-19 from behind the arc. They collected just six offensive rebounds off their misses.
“The power of Wichita Heights and what coach Joe Auer has created there is their defense,” said Washburn Rural coach Alex Hutchins. “They are so hard to keep pace with just because they make it so much work to score. And even when you do score, you’re so taxed just trying to get that bucket that it makes it even harder to defend because of how much it took out of you to score.
“When you play a team that is that athletic and that disciplined and that well-coached, you don’t get some of the shots that you’re used to getting.”
