By JUSTIN BURKHARDT
TopSports.news
Shawnee Heights girls basketball saw its 10-game winning streak snapped in Friday's Capital City Classic semifinal at the hands of Derby, but the T-Birds would answer the call against Garden City in Saturday's third-place game, posting an 80-68 victory at Topeka High.
Shawnee Heights junior KK Emmot, an all-tournament pick, scored a game-high 25 points in Saturday's 80-68 Capital City Classic win over Garden City. [File photo/TSN]
“Super, because after you lose a game like that, you kind of just need to adjust, take it away from your mind and stuff,” T-Bird junior all-tournament KK Emmot said on the importance of bouncing back.
“Yeah, it was very important for us, especially to not stay on the loss and drag that with us to a new day. Just forget about it and stay in our game, and keep a good record for the season,” Heights junior Pearmella Carter agreed.
Carter and her teammates had no problem answering the call as they would hit 12 3-pointers with six of those coming in the first quarter.
Emmot would hit three treys in the first quarter as she would score 11 of her game-high 25 over the first eight minutes to help her team take a commanding 28-16 lead.
Emmot and senior Imani McGlory would hit eight combined 3s in the game.
“KK and Imani have just done a great job of stepping up and helping lead the team,'' Shawnee Heights coach Bob Wells said. "And, you know teams have a hard time sagging off or going and covering up one without leaving the other one open. And our girls are doing a good job of finding them and getting them the ball.”
“I feel like warming up, it just felt good. Everything was flowing,” McGlory said.
“I think they their main goal was to keep us on one side of the floor,'' Emmot said. "And so they completely shifted to one side, and we could just kick it to the other side, and we'll just have an open three and we're all shooters.”
Heights would continue to be hot in the second quarter and take a 44-35 lead into the locker room at the halftime break.
The third quarter would see Garden City try to make a run and get back into the game as they would get KK to pick up her 4th foul and escape the third trailing Heights, 58-50.
But the fourth quarter would be all Heights as they would hit four more 3-pointers, with senior Reianna Vega hitting her third 3 of the night, and Carter scoring eight of her 15 points down the stretch to secure the win.
“She is just so tough inside, and she's a special kind of player, because we can play her in the post, or we can put her out on the perimeter, and she causes some definite matchup problems,” Wells said about Carter.
“That was important for us, especially in the end, because they kept fouling, they were kind of coming back a little bit, so I just had to stay locked in and make the free throws,” Carter said.
SHAWNEE HEIGHTS 80, GARDEN CITY 68
Garden City 16 19 15 18 -- 68
Shawnee Heights 28 16 15 21 -- 80
Garden City (9-7) -- Korf 6-8 2-2 17, Snodgrass 6-11 5-8 17, Hannagan 5-17 0-0 14, Powers 4-9 0-0 12, Meng 1-2 2-2 4, Doll 2-4 0-0 4, Brown 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 24-54 9-12 68.
Shawnee Heights (12-4) -- Emmot 9-17 3-5 25, McGlory 7-13 2-2 20, Carter 3-6 9-10 15, Vega 4-8 0-0 11, Baum 2-5 0-0 4, Schmidt 1-1 0-0 3, Hamilton 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 27-51 14-17 80.
3-point goals -- Garden City 11 (Powers 4, Hannagan 4, Korf 3), Shawnee Heights 12 (Emmot 4, McGlory 4, Vega 3, Schmidt). Total fouls -- Garden City 20, Heights 13. Fouled Out -- Garden City.
Vikings run past Trojans for 75-60 win to capture fifth place
The Vikings would lead from start to finish in Saturday's fifth-place game on the way to a 75-60 win over host Topeka High.
Seaman’s Lydia Dreher would score the first six points before Cara Beaton would hit her first of five 3- pointers to make it 9-0 Vikings.
Junior Ahsieyrhuajh Rayton would hit a 3 to stop the run but the Vikings would not stop there as they would hit 4 3s to go up 22-11. The Trojans would answer and go on an 8-0 run to end the first quarter trailing 22-16.
But the Vikings would force the Trojans to hit a wall as they would go on an 18-9 run in the second quarter to go into halftime up 40-25.
The Trojans got 10 points from Hailey Caryl in the first half and would come out the break with Caryl getting two baskets. But the Vikings would answer and go on an 8-3 run to stretch the lead to 20 at 50-30.
Senior Maddie Gragg would score seven of her 20 points in the final minutes of the third stanza to help her team take a 59-39 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Trojans just could not find the stops they needed on defense to make a late-game comeback as Gragg would continue to light it up with six more points in the fourth.
The Trojans' Keimara Marshall would get five of her 12 points in the fourth, but it just wouldn’t be enough as the Vikings would get the 15-point win.
“Before the game, we just talked about belief,'' Seaman coach Matt Tinsley said. "I told the girls, 'Do the things that are hard to do and the power will come.' And I told them, 'You contribute in your way to help us be successful.' And I'm just really proud of their belief and the fight that they showed and the confidence that they played with.
"We had girls step up, they were sharing the ball. And it helps shoot the ball like we did, too. Man, we were on fire there at the start, but just going back to my message, you can do hard things, and you can do them together. And this was a great team win today. We had everybody step up.”
“We really wanted to push the pace, start off strong,'' Beaton said. "We've been struggling to start off strong in the first half, so our goal today was to start strong, push some points, push the pace. And yeah. It was really big for everyone, and I was proud of everybody.”
“I knew that we had to come out strong in the third quarter, because sometimes we struggle with that like the first quarter,'' Gragg said. "But I just knew that we had to keep putting points on the board because Topeka High wasn't going to give up.”
The Trojans would be led in scoring by Caryl, who would lead all scorers with 22.
Topeka High's Rayton was named the Capital City Classic Most Valuable Player.
SEAMAN 75, TOPEKA HIGH 60
Topeka High 16 9 14 21 -- 60
Seaman 22 18 19 16 -- 75
Topeka High (6-8) -- Caryl 6-11 9-11 22, Rayton 5-13 2-6 15, Marshall 5-12 0-0 12, Gotru 0-7 2-2 2, Short 0-0 0-0 0, Whayne 2-3 5, Brown 2-2 0-0 4. Totals 20-48 13-19 60.
Seaman (7-5) -- Beaton 6-8 4-5 21, Gragg 8-16 4-6 20, Dreher 5-8 3-3 13, Puvogel 4-5 2-6 11, Spencer 2-6 0-0 5, Ketron 1-2 0-0 3, Ayres 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 27-47 13-20 75.
3-point goals -- Topeka High 7 (Dayton 3, Marshall 2, Caryl, Whayne), Seaman 8 (Beaton 5, Ketron, Puvogel, Spencer). Total Fouls -- Topeka High 16, Seaman 14. Fouled out --Short.
Wichita Heights clips Derby to win tourney title, 65-63
Class 6A No. 2 and undefeated Wichita Heights and 6A No. 3 Derby would battle down to the wire in Saturday's championship game, with the Falcons taking a 65-63 win.
Derby would get out to an early 12-4 lead before Heights would answer and start to claw back to end the first quarter down 23-17 as the Falcons would hold Derby star Macayla Askew to only two points in the first quarter.
Derby would open the second quarter with Askew finding the basket for only her second basket of the game, and Heights would answer and go on a 14-5 run to go into halftime with the lead, 31-30.
The third quarter would see each team trade blows, with Derby taking the lead back at 40-38, but it would be short lived as Heights' Aniyah Harris would hit her third 3 of the night to take the lead back at 41-40. The third quarter would come to an end with the Falcons up 49-47.
The fourth quarter would be the Askew show as the Derby star would score six straight points to tie the game at 53 before Heights would answer with four points to go back up 57-53.
Derby would have the ball in the final seconds with a chance to tie the game and they got the ball into their captain's hands but the shot wouldn’t fall and the Falcons would leave Topeka with the Capital City Classic trophy.
Derby’s Askew would score 15 of her game high 23 in the fourth quarter, but that wouldn’t quite be enough.
“Heights gave us everything we wanted, and that's what you want,'' Derby coach Bryan Chadwick said. "You want your best player to have the ball at the end of the game, to try to win it or tie it. We were there.”
“We had four games to play today,'' Heights coach Jen Pillich said. "And that's how we chopped it up in the four games. We've got to win three of them. Each game's eight minutes. And at the end of the day, we came out victorious.
"A lot of these girls, they were in different positions last year. So at the end of the day, being in this position is very kind of foreign to them, but they trust each other, they love each other, they hear what they've got to do.”
WICHITA HEIGHTS 65, DERBY 63
Derby 23 7 17 16 -- 63
Wichita Heights 17 14 18 16 -- 65
Derby (13-3) -- Askew 9-17 5-6 23, Graham 2-5 2-4 8, Fox 2-4 4-4 8, Dinsmore 3-5 0-0 6, Demel 1-4 0-2 3, Carter 4-11 6-8 15, Harris 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 21-47 17-24 63.
Wichita Heights (15-0) -- Harris 7-19 1-3 18, Rose 8-14 2-4 18, Maze 4-16 4-6 12, Waller 3-7 2-2 8, Reed 1-5 0-2 2, Brown 2-5 1-2 5, Dingle 1-2 0-2 2. Totals 26-68 10-21 65.
3-point goals -- Derby 4 (Graham 2, Carter, Demel), Wichita Heights 3 (Harris 3). Total fouls -- Derby 21, Wichita Heights 22. Fouled out -- none.
Lady Scots drop 70-45 game to Lawrence
The Highland Park Lady Scots would face off with the Lawrence Lions in the first game of the day and the Lions would ride a quick start to a 70-45 win in the seventh-place game.
Lawrence would get off to a hot start, starting the game with a 6-0 run before the Scots' Koralee Jones would make two free throws to get her team on the board.
The Lions would go on another 7-0 run before Zayah Kincade hit a 3 to make it 15-7.
But this game would be all Lawrence as the Lions would take a 24-9 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Scots would not have an answer for Lions center Cami Nauholz, who would have a career game with 15 of her game-high 30 coming in the first quarter. She would add another eight points in the third quarter.
The Scots would battle as they would win the third quarter by outscoring the Lions, 17-14. But defensive stops is what coach Rob Brown needed from his girls in the fourth as the damage had already been done.
The Scots had three girls in double figures as Miluv Cosey had a team-high 15.
“We've been talking about this all weekend. They've been fighting, not giving up,'' Brown said. "Second halves, have been better for us. I feel like all weekend. I feel like they're responding and they're learning. We kept talking about the magnitude of this tournament, the teams in this tournament, every game we play take something from these teams to learn something.
"So I think they did a good job of that. They picked the intensity up, especially on defense, They're fighting together. Miluv’s been one of my favorites. She's having to handle the ball for us a lot. She's having to get a lot of shots up for her, been a good leader. I subbed her out for the first time in two months today. She is a warrior. She's a really good kid on and off the court. She gonna keep doing what she's supposed to be doing and keep getting better.”
LAWRENCE 70, HIGHLAND PARK 45
Highland Park 9 7 17 12 -- 45
Lawrence 24 19 14 13 -- 70
Highland Park (4-11) -- Cosey 6-16 3-4 15, Kincade 4-18 3-6 14, Jones 3-9 8-15 14, Sanders 0-3 1-2 1, Barnett 0-1 0-0 0, Inyard 0-3 0-0 0, Atkins 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 13-51 15-27 45.
Lawrence (8-7) -- Nauholz 12-16 5-6 30, Ramsay 5-14 0-0 12, Baars-Turner 4-6 1-1 11, Juelsgaard 2-6 0-2 6, Doleman 1-3 2-3 4, Urish 2-2 1-2 5, Koehn 1-2 0-0 2, Simmons 0-5 0-2 0, Barber 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 27-57 9-16 70.
3-point goals -- Highland Park 4 (Kincaid 3, Cosey), Lawrence 7 (Juelsgaard 2, Ramsay 2, Baars Turner 2, Nauholz). Total fouls -- Highland Park 15, Lawrence 19. Fouled out -- Doleman.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Karlie Demel, Derby; Aniyah Harris, Wichita Heights; KK Emmot, Shawnee Heights; Destiny Maze, Wichita Heights; Macayla Askew, Derby; Ahsieyrhuajh Rayton, Topeka High.
Most valuable player -- Ahsieyrhuajh Rayton, Topeka High.
