Wildcats scratch late hayden girls 54, topeka high 47

By KEN CLARK

The Capital-Journal

Topeka High's failure to execute in the second half opened the way for Hayden to go for the gold Monday night, the black and gold that is.

The game remained close until the final quarter, and High took a 40-37 lead into the final period. But defensive pressure from Hayden guards Amber Scheckel and Jenny Meier kept High from penetrating the middle and created an onslaught of late turnovers that eventually resulted in a 54-47 Hayden win.

Three turnovers created by Scheckel early in the fourth quarter resulted in a quick five points and put Hayden on top, where they stayed until the end of the game.

"We handled the ball well; we sunk some important free throws; we made it tough for them on their offensive end," Hayden coach Rick Strecker said. "I just don't think we could have done a whole lot better in the fourth quarter. I was proud of them.

"I think we executed well the entire game. We got more of our shots to drop in the second half.

"It (the game) went the way we had hoped it would go in that eventually we would be able to play enough kids to keep our players on the court fresh, and I think that helped us a little bit at the end," Strecker added.

Both teams shot 3-pointers well and ended up with three apiece. Hayden's treys came from juniors Jenny Meier and Emily Eagan and sophmore Amanda Barnes. High's 3s came from senior Bre Huff and Ta'Nia Gibbs, who each bucketed two.

Hayden's leading scorer was Jennifer Butler with 12, followed by Amber McGinnis with 10.

High's scoring was led by Anjanae Wilson with 16 and Crystal Kemp with 13.

"Hayden came to play basketball, and we showed up half way," High coach Brenda Soldani said. "We played half the game but didn't play the other half.

"I have to give Hayden a lot of credit. They were getting a lot of shots blocked and hung in there and kept putting it up, and they were getting some threes, and we couldn't stop them. We were in the lead and just shot ourselves in the foot. We turned the ball over, and they capitalized on our mistakes.

"We had some shorter players on their bigger players, and they didn't execute the way I wanted them to, and that will be something we'll work on in practice tomorrow," Soldani said.

Hayden 15 9 13 17 --- 54Topeka High 11 12 17 7 --- 47 Hayden (2-2) --- Butler 5 2-4 12, Eagan 4 2-2 11, McGinnis 3 4-6 10, Scheckel 2 2-5 6, Meier 2 0-0 5, Wempe 1 1-2 3, Barnes 1 0-0 3, Gartner 1 2, Huston 2-2 2.

Topeka High (1-2) --- Wilson 5 4-6 16, Kemp 5 3-4 13, Gibbs 2 0-0 6, Huff 2 0-0 5, Gregory 4-6 4, Johnson 2.

3-point goals --- Hayden: Eagan 1, Meier 1, Barnes 1; Topeka High: Huff 1, Gibbs 2.

Junior Varsity score --- Hayden 38, Topeka High 28.

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