By JUSTIN BURKHARDT
TopSports.news
In a battle of former Centennial League foes, the Hayden Wildcats rolled to a 69-24 home win over Highland Park Scots Thursday night at the Bueltel Activity Center.
Hayden sophomore Hailey Schmidtlein scored a game-high 20 points in Thursday's 69-24 Wildcat win over city rival Highland Park. [File photo/TSN]
The Wildcats, ranked No. 9 in Class 4A by the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association, would get things started with sophomore standout Hailey Schmidtlein finding the basket to score the first of her game-high 20 points.
But the lead would not last long as Highland Park’s Zayah Kincaid would hit the first of her three 3-pointers to take a 3-2 lead.
The Lady Scots would hold the lead for a few minutes before Schmidtlein would find the basket again with a 3-pointer to put Hayden up 5-3 and the Wildcats wouldn’t look back as they would go on a 13-0 run before Kincaid would find the basket again to make it 18-5.
The Wildcats would answer with a 14-0 run to make it 32-5 before the Scots' Koralee Jones would get to the free throw line. The Wildcats would take a 39-9 lead into halftime.
Hayden sophomore Blakely Walter would get her team going early in the third quarter with a 3-pointer and Kincaid would match with her own 3-ball.
Hayden junior Emberly Connell would get going in the third as she would score 7 of her 11 points in the quarter. Connell, who mainly played junior varsity last season, has seen her minutes increase this year as Wildcat coach Carvel Reynoldson is trying to replace the four seniors he graduated a year ago.
“Well, if you watch her, she's always really talking and communicating on defense and she's a really good rebounder,'' Reynoldson said. "Sometimes the ball finds people like that, the hustle players, and she shows in practice that she can put the ball in the hole. So we're really not that surprised.”
“It’s always encouraging when your teammates have faith that you’re able to put the ball in the basket. I like how they have the same faith in me that I do as them,” Connell said.
The Wildcats would end the third quarter with a 57-19 lead and force a running clock in the fourth quarter.
Hayden will be in action next week in the El Dorado tournament, where the Wildcats finished second a year ago.
The loaded El Dorado field featured the state’s leading scorer in Wichita Kapaun’s Zoey Franklin.
“We're really looking forward to that tournament,'' Reynoldson said. "There's a lot of really good teams. Maize South, they got pretty much everybody back and added a really good point guard. There's the leading score in the state, playing for Kapaun. It is going to be good. Goddard, Mill Valley, Gardner-Edgerton a lot of 6A schools, so it's going to be a really tough tournament.”
HAYDEN GIRLS 69, HIGHLAND PARK 24
Highland Park 5 4 10 5 -- 24
Hayden 22 17 18 12 69
Highland Park (4-7) -- Kincaid 4-9 2-4 13, Jones 1-10 4-7 7, Cosey 1-8 0-0 3, Barnett 0-0 0-0 0, Atkins 0-1 0-2 0, Inyard 0-2 1-2 1, Brown 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 6-30 7-15 24.
Hayden (10-3) -- Schmidtlein 9-15 0-2 20, Walter 2-8 2-4 7, Watts 2-2 0-2 4, Foster 1-6 0-0 2, Huscher 1-2 0-0 2, Connell 5-9 1-1 11, Borjon 3-6 1-2 9, Mitchell 1-5 5-7 7, Wichman 1-3 2-4 4, Wrench 1-1 0-0 3. Totals 26-57 11-22 69.
3-point goals -- Highland Park 4 (Kincaid 3, Cosey) Hayden 6 (Schmidtlein 2, Borjon 2, Walter, Wrench). Total Fouls -- Highland Park 15, Hayden 9. Fouled out - None. Technical fouls -- Atkins.
