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WU women's basketball in Oklahoma for pair of tournament tilts this weekend
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University women's basketball heads to Lawton, Okla. this weekend for its final two non-conference games of the regular season, taking on Western Colorado at 5 p.m. Friday and Cameron at 4 p.m. Saturday in the Fairfield Inn and Suites Holiday Classic.
Washburn, 7-3 on the season, will be in Oklahoma this weekend for its final two non-conference games of the regular season. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Washburn is 7-3 on the season while Western Colorado enters Friday's game with a 5-3 record and Cameron enters its tournament 0-9.
Washburn coach Lora Westling wasn't pleased with the Ichabods' play, particularly in the first half, in Tuesday's non-conference game against Truman State, but the WU coach acknowledged that the fact that the Ichabods were still able to post a 16-point win without being at their best was a sign of continuing progress for the program.
"The win's huge and we've got to have that,'' Westling said. "I've been on the other side of effort like that and it's like a smack in the face twice, so I am proud that we did enough to find a way to win a region game.
"I know we've had a little adversity this week, but we'll be better. I know these kids, I know they want to do well, but we are also going to take this (the performance against Truman) very seriously and understand it's not acceptable.''
Senior Yibari Nwidadah, who missed the Truman State game with an injury, averages a team-high 12.9 points and 6.8 rebounds for Washburn while shooting 55.7 percent from the floor. Nwidadah is expected to play this weekend.
Senior Payton Sterk averages 12.6 points and a team-high 1.8 steals while hitting 17 3-pointers and senior Gabi Giovannetti averages 12.5 points with a team-high 20 3-pointers.
Juniors Britany Kogbara and Madelyn Amekporfor average 8.7 and 6.4 points for the Ichabods.
Four players cracked double figures for the Ichabods in Tuesday's win over Truman State, led by 18 points on 9 of 12 shooting by Kogbara, who added five rebounds and two blocks. Amekporfor had 13 points on 6-9 shooting, Giovannetti 12 points and Sterk 10.
Senior Aniah Wayne scored seven points while adding a career-high 10 rebounds and swiping four steals.
Bachelor eclipses 1,000-point mark as No. 1-ranked Ichabods rout No. 4 Buffs, 74-48
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Junior Jack Bachelor led the way Wednesday as newly-named No. 1-ranked Washburn University men's basketball raced past No. 4 West Texas A&M, 74-48, in San Antonio as the Ichabods topped their second straight No. 4-ranked foe.
Junior Jack Bachelor scored a game-high 19 points Wednesday to join Washburn's 1,000-point club for career points. [File photo/TSN]
Bachelor's first basket of the game – a 3-pointer with 15:33 to go in the first half – pushed him over the career 1,000-point mark for his career at Washburn, becoming the 30th Ichabod in program history to reach 1,000 points.
The former Washburn Rural star went on to score a game-high 19 points, hitting 5 of 10 shots from the floor and going a perfect 6 of 6 at the free throw line while adding five assists.
Bachelor now has 1,017 career points in 77 career games and he is tied with former teammate Michael Keegan at No. 24 overall on Washburn's all-time scoring chart.
Now 13-0 on the season, Washburn seized control in the opening minutes, answering an early West Texas A&M push with a 12-0 run midway through the first half to take control.
The Ichabods shot a sizzling 58.6 percent from the floor in the first half and knocked down seven three-pointers, opening up a commanding 44-24 advantage at the break.
The Ichabods turned 11 Buffs first-half turnovers into 19 points, leading to a 16-0 advantage in fastbreak points.
Bachelor and junior Jeremiah Jones led the Ichabods' first-half charge with with 10 points apiece while sophomore Tyson Ruud added nine points.
The Ichabods maintained control in the second half, weathering a brief West Texas A&M rally before responding with timely baskets and defensive stops.
Washburn outscored the Buffs 30-24 after the break, holding the Buffs to 33.3 percent shooting (6 of 18) shooting while continuing to generate offense off turnovers and in the paint.
The WU lead ballooned to as many as 27 points late.
Highland Park girls end long layoff with 42-40 win over Shawnee Mission West
By JUSTIN BURKHARDT
TopSports.news
It had been 12 days in between Games 1 and 2 for the Highland Park Lady Scots, who lost their season-opener to Topeka West.
Rob Brown's Highland Park girls picked up their first win of the season Tuesday night at home, rallying for a 42-40 non-league win over Shawnee Mission West. [File photo/TSN]
But the Scots made the long layoff pay off with a 42-40 home non-league victory over Class 6A school Shawnee Mission West.
The game would be a tale of two halves for the Scots, who saw themselves trailing the Vikings 10-7 at the end of the first quarter and 22-12 at halftime.
But defense wins games and defense it was as the Lady Scots would come out hot and hold the Vikings to 18 total points after halftime while scoring 30 points themselves.
“At halftime, I stressed that it is going to be our defense,'' Highland Park coach Rob Brown said. "We had to make some adjustments. I stressed to them tonight that this game was going to be the first to 40 wins and I was right.
"I keep telling the girls that our defense is going to be key for us. Offense is going to take care of itself, but we have to play defense without fouling.”
The Scots got huge shots when it mattered out of senior Koralee Jones who was cold for the night and had missed her last eight shots before hitting the biggest shots of the night.
With under two minutes to go in the game Jones would hit the net to tie the game at 38 and then with a minute to go in the game Jones would come up big again for her team as she would find the basket again this time to put her team up 40-38.
“It just says a lot about her confidence that it is growing, people don’t know, this is her third year playing basketball,'' Brown said. "So her confidence has grown with every practice and every game. The girls trust her and she trusts her teammates.”
“Just reflecting off the team’s energy, we played aggressive defense and kept grinding on offense, we didn’t let ourselves get flustered and kept attacking, and my shot finally fell when it mattered,” Jones said.
Shawnee Mission West would take a timeout with 18 seconds left and hit a shot to tie the game at 40.
But the Scots would get the ball down the court and it would find it’s way into the hands of sophomore Tavvi Williams-Sanders, who scored the game-winning basket.
“She is always in the right spot and she has that little soft touch to go back up with it,” Brown said.
“It means a lot to me because I wasn’t doing so good, and at the beginning of the game I got mad, but my teammates kept motivating me and I was at the right place at the right time to hit the shot,” Williams-Sanders said.
