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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Fresh off last week's championship in the Glaciers Edge Tournament, Washburn Rural girls basketball ran its winning streak to four games Wednesday night, riding a big night from freshman Brynn Anderson to a 55-42 non-league home win over Blue Valley.
Freshman Brynn Anderson scored 25 points with five 3-pointers in Wednesday's 55-42 Washburn Rural win over Blue Valley. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Anderson, named the Most Valuable Player in last week's tournament, scored a game-high 25 points with five 3-pointers and a six of six performance at the free throw line to lead the way as the 10th-ranked (Class 6A) Junior Blues ran their record to 11-4 on the season.
"She's been that way pretty much all year and you see almost every day in practice her development and getting better,'' Washburn Rural coach Kevin Bordewick said. "We've got some kids that know we've got to get her the ball a little bit and we've got other kids that will step up.
"Brynn on the offensive end has been real consistent for us and it's kind of fun to see her light it up from outside a little bit, too.''
Washburn Rural senior Josie Carlgren had a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds in Wednesday's 55-42 win over Blue Valley. [Photo by Doug Walker/Special to TSN]
Washburn Rural also got a double-double from senior Josie Carlgren, who scored 12 points and grabbed 13 rebounds while hitting a pair of 3-pointers and going four of four at the free throw line.
Rural only trailed once in the game at 8-7 and there were just two ties (at 5-5 and 13-all), but 8-8 Blue Valley was within single-digits for most of the night before the Junior Blues opened up their biggest lead of the night at 55-41 with 18.3 seconds remaining.
Blue Valley had three players crack double figures, led by senior Lucy Kennedy with 14 points and four 3-pointers. Sophomore Devin Splittorff added 11 points and sophomore Taylor Forgy 10 for the Tigers.
"They're really not a bad team,'' Bordewick said of the Tigers. "They're a better team than maybe what their record indicates and I think a better team tonight than what we saw last week at Emporia even, because they were in that.
"They shot well, I thought they played hard and they gave us obviously quite a run. But I was proud of these guys. I thought we competed and we worked hard on the defensive end to get it going on offense and I thought we did a pretty good job.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University football coach Zach Watkins announced a diverse 34-member high school recruiting class on Wednesday, including five city products.
Washburn football coach Zach Watkins announced a 2026 recruiting class on Wednesday that includes 34 high school players and 17 transfers who are already on campus. [File photo/TSN]
"Our staff did a tremendous job of identifying what we needed on the roster and going out and identifying the kids that fit those needs,'' said Watkins, who will be starting his second season as WU's head coach in 2026. "We've been recruiting these guys since February of '25, so to see a full year of recruiting come to fruition and the kids all signed is very satisfying.''
Watkins also confirmed that Washburn, which is coming off a 3-8 campaign, has picked up 17 transfers who are currently enrolled at WU for the spring semester.
"We got hired last year and had a month to recruit,'' Watkins said. "This year we had a year to recruit. We signed 34 high school kids and 17 transfers who are here on campus right now and they started in January. They're the most talented group of transfers we've ever brought in here at Washburn.
"Those transfers provide immediate help and immediate depth and then like I said from Day 1 when we got hired as a staff, we're going to be a high school-based recruiting program. We're going to recuit Topeka, we're going to recruit Kansas, the Midwest and branch out from there and the 34 kids we signed really filled the needs we have and the depth we needed to create, we got that done in this class.''
Washburn Rural's Jordy Heim (6-foot-1, 220 pounds) and John Hoytal (6-3, 200) signed on Wednesday along with Hayden's Kade Mitchell (5-9, 175), Shawnee Heights' Aiden Scott (6-5, 200) and Topeka West's Logan Hunninghake (6-2, 250).
John Hoytal, Washburn Rural
Kade Mitchell, Hayden
Kade Mitchell, Hayden
Hoytal, Mitchell and Scott earned TopSports.news All-Shawnee County Top 22 honors this past fall while Heim was a Second 22 all-county honoree and Hunninghake earned all-county honorable mention.
Hoytal played quarterback for Washburn Rural but is projected as a tight end in college while Mitchell is a running back, Scott a quarterback, Heim a linebacker and Hunninghake an offensive lineman.
"The kids we got from Topeka we're really excited about,'' Watkins said.
The Washburn recruiting class includes 11 players that played at Kansas high schools along with 12 Missouri prep products, seven from Texas, three from Florida and one from Nebraska.
There's also diversity among position groups, with eight players projected as defensive backs, six defensive linemen and five offensive linemen, four wide receivers, three linebackers and running backs, two tight ends, two punter/kickers and one quarterback.
Washburn recruiting capsules:
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By JUSTIN BURKHARDT
TopSports.news
Junior JoJo Kingcannon scored a game-high 26 points for Highland Park Tuesday night, but Kansas City-Washington pulled away in the second half for a 62-51 Meadowlark Conference win at Hi Park.
Junior JoJo Kingcannon (11) led Highland Park with 26 points in the Scots' 62-51 loss to Kansas City-Washington Tuesday night. [File photo/TSN]
The Scots, who lost nine seniors from a year ago and with Kingcannon being the lone returner with major varsity experience and coach Nate Wallace in his first season as a head coach, Highland Park knew it was going to go through growing pains this season and entered Tuesday's game on a five-game losing streak.
“Poise. I think we're losing the close ones that we have lost over the season just because of the experience factor, understanding how to value the possession, understanding kind of what I want and who I want to have the ball at certain times of certain possessions to give us the best opportunity to win,'' Wallace said.
Both teams would come out giving everything they had early as they would trade basket for basket and tie it up at six early in the game.
After a Washington 3-pointer, which the Scots would answer with a Kingcannon 3 for his seventh point of the first quarter to make it 9-9, Washington would then hit two consecutive treys to end the quarter with the 15-9 lead.
The second quarter would see both teams light up the scoreboard as Kingcannon would go to work again for his team.
Kingcannon would score the first basket of the quarter and later score five straight points to get within one at 21-20.
The Wildcats and Scots would continue to battle it out until Kingcannon would drive and get the and-one to tie it up 26 and hit the ensuing free throw to giver Highland Park the lead by a point.
Washington would then get fouled and make both free throws to re-take the lead at 28-26 before Kingcannon would drive again and get the shot to go back up 29-28.
Washington would then out-score the Scots 7-1 in the final two minutes of the second quarter to go into halftime with the lead, 35-30.
The Scots would come out of the locker room with sophomore Davion Anderson hitting his first basket of the night with a 3-pointer to get within two before Kingcannon would get fouled shooting a 3-pointer and hit all three charities to enable Highland Park to re-take the lead, 36-35.
Elliot Berry for Washington would get a shot to fall and give Washington a 37-36 advantage and that would be all it wrote for the Scots, who would run out of gas at the end of the quarter when Washington would go on a 11-0 run to make it 52-40 to end the third.
The Scots would play catch-up in the fourth and came up short in the 11-point defeat.
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By JUSTIN BURKHARDT
TopSports.news
Highland Park girls basketball, which was fighting a five-game losing streak entering Tuesday's home Meadowlark Conference game against Kansas City-Washington broke through with a 50-31 home win.
Junior Miluv Cosey led a balanced Highland Park attack with 12 points in Tuesday's 50-31 Meadowlark Conference win over KC-Washington. [File photo/TSN[
Zayah Kincade hit a 3-pointer to get things going for the Scots as they would get off to a 7-0 start before Washington would go on a 12-1 run to take the lead 12-8 to end the first quarter.
The Scots would come out in the second quarter and go on a 6-0 run but Scot junior Miluv Cosey would pick up her second foul of the game and have to go to the bench, which would allow the Wildcats to go on their own run to tie the contest at 16.
Senior Koralee Jones would get two baskets in a row to put her team up 20-16 and they would follow that up with another Kincade 3-pointer to go into the locker room with a 26-20 lead.
Cosey would make her return in the third quarter and score eight straight points of her team-high 12 to stretch the Highland Park lead to 34-22.
“At halftime while I was talking, Miluv really took it to heart,'' Highland Park coach Rob Brown said. "I could tell she was looking at me in my eyes. And she went on that third-quarter run where she had eight straight points, all off steals. If she keeps doing that she'll help us out a lot.”
“It was just the talk that we had during halftime, you know we came together,'' Cosey said. "He told us, we just got to stretch the lead out and I feel that's what we did. I came out with a better mindset and my confidence goes down when I miss a couple shots, but he knows how to motivate me to get out there and let it out. And that's what I feel I did.”
The Scots they would leave the third quarter with a commanding 39-26 lead and the halftime message would be enough as they would go on to pick up the 19-point victory.
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By VINCE LOVERGINE
TopSports.news
Kansas City-Turner kept things close most of the way Tuesday night at Shawnee Heights until the fourth quarter when the T-Birds opened the flood gates en route to a 76-54 United Kansas Conference win.
Shawnee Heights freshman Quincy Dixon scored a game-high 20 points in Tuesday's 76-54 UKC win over KC-Turner. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
“The finish of the final quarter was dominating and we did it with defense,” Heights coach Ken Darting said. “What we’re not grasping is that when you’re basically playing five guys for 32 minutes, you have to play 100 percent all the time and nothing less. We have to get more help off the bench or we’re going to be in trouble.”
Junior Cam Ross scored 18 points in Shawnee Heights' 76-54 UKC win over KC-Turner Tuesday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Junior Cam Ross had himself a nice first quarter drilling a triple early on to push the T-Birds to a 5-0 lead, and senior JaiMarion Cook made it 10-5 before Ross had a steal and went coast to coast, threw down a dunk with one hand with a defender all over him. He then would hit a three late in the quarter to make it 17-7 and SHHS led 19-10 after one.
The Bears would go on a 9-0 run to begin the second quarter after Xaire Davis hit a three to make it 20-19. Shawnee Heights would quickly regain the lead after freshman Quincy Dixon converted an and-one opportunity.
The lead would get back to five after another Cook three from the left wing but Darion McBride tied the game at 28 for Turner after he, too, converted an and-one and that's where the game stood at halftime, 28-28.
The game would go back and forth for a little bit in the third quarter but then the T-Birds built a lead once again thanks to senior Ja’Veon Alston and Dixon, creating a 10-2 run and forcing the Bears into a timeout at 43-35.
After another Ross dunk and a Aiden Scott buzzer-beating layup, Shawnee Heights led by 10, 47-37 going into the fourth.
The Bears would bring its deficit down to seven after a Cedric Scott three, but after that Turner committed several turnovers leading to transition points along with fastbreak opportunities and the lead grew to 63-47 before Turner called another timeout.
