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Silver Lake girls earn second Class 3A championship in three seasons, 60-44 over Osage
By TODD FERTIG
TopSports.news
HUTCHINSON -- By defeating Osage City 60-44 on Saturday in Hutchinson, the Silver Lake girls won their second title in three seasons and the eighth in school history.
Silver Lake senior star Kailyn Hanni celebrates at the end of Saturday's 60-44 win over Osage City in the Class 3A championship game. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The Eagles built a 26-14 lead at the half, which they expanded to 40-29 after three periods.
But the Indians staged a comeback that saw the Silver Lake lead sliced to just five points, 55-50, with six minutes remaining. The Eagles defended, hit free throws and capitalized on a couple of runouts to shut down the Osage City rally.
After hitting just 8-15 from the line for three periods, Silver Lake was a perfect 10-10 in the fourth.
“In the postseason, you know you’re (facing) a good team,” Silver Lake coach Kyle Porter said. “They’re gonna make runs. We knew that they were going to get going. We knew we were gonna take a punch and we just needed to respond and play the next play.”
Porter’s star player, a senior who hardly ever makes mistakes, made one final blunder. As the final seconds ran off the clock Kailyn Hanni fired the ball high into the air and ran to embrace her teammates. The only problem was, the ball came down out of bounds with a second remaining.
“I got scared. I just threw the ball up. I didn’t know what I was doing,” Hanni laughed.
Silver Lake senior Kailyn Hanni holds the Class 3A championship Saturday in Hutchinson. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
She could afford to laugh. The Fort Hays State recruit scored 21 points, hit 11-13 from the line, collected nine rebounds, dished out seven assists and drew 11 fouls on Osage City defenders.
“I said, 'You had one more second and then you could have done that,' ” Porter said of Hanni. “She’s the most complete player that I’ve ever coached. Not just what she does with the ball and her command of the entire floor, but her ability to pass, her ability to score.”
Porter said Hanni demonstrated her leadership traits when she took command of the situation when Silver Lake fell behind 7-0 to Holcomb in the semifinal contest.
“When you have a player do that, it’s one thing for a coach to do it, but when you have a player that calms everybody down, she’s just an incredible leader, and incredible kid,” Porter said. “We’re gonna miss her next year, but we’re excited for what she has in store.”
In Hanni’s four years of varsity action at Silver Lake the Eagles finished fourth her freshman year, took first her sophomore year, and lost in the state final to Halstead by three points last year. She admitted that the pain of losing outweighs the thrill of winning.
“Last year, we felt it a lot worse, and so from that day on, we were grinding until this day,” Hanni said.
“Each state championship in its own is a special journey, a special ride,” said Porter, who won a state title at Royal Valley before coming to Silver Lake six years ago. “With this one, what made it so awesome is the fact of how close we came last year and we didn’t finish the job.
"That left a sour taste in our players’ mouths. And I knew looking in the eyes of our team tonight in the fourth quarter – we were going to get (Osage City’s) best shot in the fourth quarter – I could tell that we were gonna respond and finish the game.”
Sophomore Karys Deiter scored 19 points in Silver Lake's 60-44 win over Osage City Saturday in Hutchinson. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Silver Lake junior Savanah Wende scored 10 points in Saturday's 60-44 win over Osage City. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TNS]
Hanni scored just four points in the first half as Osage City focused on corralling her. Silver Lake sophomore Karys Deiter stepped up with 11 first-half points. Junior Savanah Wende also produced big baskets. Deiter and Wende finished with 19 and 10 points respectively.
“Karys has played a lot of basketball in her life and that experience, along with Kailyn, that pays dividends in a game like this,” Porter said. “She stepped up in a big way. We needed to have complimentary scoring tonight. It couldn’t just be Kailyn and Savanah (Wende). It’s got to be everybody, and it was really nice to see Karys step up.”
“I was really happy to see Savanah and Karys really come out on top in that first half. And then my coach was like ‘Ok, time to turn it on.’ And I was like ‘Ok, let’s go.’ ” Hanni said.
No. 8 seed Minnesota-Duluth stuns top seed Ichabods 64-62 in NCAA Central Regional
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn junior Jack Bachelor drives for a basket in Saturday's 64-62 NCAA Central Regional loss to Minnesota-Duluth. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN] 
Senior Bryson Smith led Washburn with 15 points in Saturday's 64-62 NCAA Central Regional loss to Minnesota-Duluth. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN] 
Sophomore Tyson Ruud (2) scored 12 points for Washburn in Saturday's 64-62 NCAA Central Regional loss to Minnesota-Duluth. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN] 
Seaman sends Cox out with 66-50 win over West in third-place game
By JUSTIN BURKHARDT
TopSports.news
WICHITA -- In what marked the final game of his tenure as Seaman boys basketball coach, Craig Cox saw his team deliver a strong performance Friday, defeating city rival Topeka West 66-50 in the Class 5A third-place game at Koch Arena.
The matchup marked the third meeting of the season between the city and United Kansas Conference foes, but this time Seaman controlled the game early and never fully relinquished its advantage.
Seaman senior KaeVon Bonner (33) had 9 points and 10 assists in the Vikings' 66-50 win over Topeka West in Friday's Class 5A third-place game. [Photo by Selena Rivas Favela/Special to TSN]
Seaman jumped out to a quick start behind senior KaeVon Bonner, who scored four of the Vikings’ first six points to give his team a 6-0 lead.
Topeka West eventually got on the board when junior Prince Lassiter converted a basket, but Seaman quickly responded with a 7-0 run to stretch the lead to 13-4.
Chargers guard Keimani Paul knocked down a 3-pointer late in the quarter, but the Vikings answered with four more points to take a 17-8 lead into the second period.
Topeka West found momentum early in the second quarter, opening the period on a 10-1 run to pull within two points. However, Viking senior Landon Wiltz halted the Chargers’ surge with a timely 3-pointer.
Seaman regained control from there, closing the half with a flurry of outside shooting.
The Vikings connected on three 3-pointers down the stretch, including one at the buzzer, to push their lead to 11 heading into halftime.
Seaman senior Landon Wiltz (5), defending Topeka West's Keimani Paul, led all scorers with 23 points in Friday's 66-50 win in the Class 5A third-place game. [Photo by Selena Rivas Favela/Special to TSN]
Wiltz led all scorers with 11 first-half points and was 3 for 4 from beyond the 3-point arc.
Both teams struggled to find offensive rhythm to start the third quarter, but Topeka West closed the period strong with an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to seven.
Cox emphasized patience and ball movement during the break between quarters.
“We had moved the ball again and were just kind of settling for some shots and missing them,” Cox said. “It’s like, make the extra pass and it’ll be fine. I thought we moved the ball a lot better, got it to the middle and played a little bit from the inside out.
"With these guys having confidence, it makes it easy to not panic when a good team like Topeka West makes a run.”
“(Cox0 just told us to finish the game out,” Bonner said. "We just kept letting them back in. It’s the last game of the season, just have fun.”
Seaman responded with its strongest stretch of the game to open the fourth quarter.
After the Chargers scored five quick points to pull within four, the Vikings erupted on a 9-0 run to extend the lead to 52-39.
Paul briefly halted the surge with a 3-pointer for Topeka West, but Seaman answered with three consecutive 3-pointers of its own to effectively put the game out of reach.
The Vikings were particularly efficient from long range, shooting 13 of 26 from 3-point range, while Topeka West struggled from deep, converting just 3 of 19 attempts.
Wiltz finished with a game-high 23 points, while Bonner impacted the game in other ways. Though held to nine points, the standout guard recorded 10 assists.
“I know scoring is one of my main things, but if my shot’s not falling, I’ll go out and get my teammates involved,” Bonner said. “Landon was hitting his shots, so I just drove and found him. He did his job of shooting for me.”
