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Hayden early Monday night, it might have a hard time getting the Wildcats at all.

That proved to be the case, with the No. 2-seeded Chargers struggling much of the game against the No. 7-seeded Wildcats before finally subduing Hayden down the stretch for a 50-42 victory in the opening round of the Girls Capital Classic at Seaman.

West advances to a 6 o'clock semifinal tonight against Topeka High, which upset No. 3 seed Shawnee Heights, 49-45. Washburn Rural, a 57-46 winner over Seaman, will take on Santa Fe Trail, a 71-38 winner over Highland Park, in tonight's second semifinal at 7:45.

"As well as Strecker (Hayden coach Rick Strecker) has those guys prepared to play every time, if you don't get them early and put them away, they're going to be with you," West's Goehring said after his team's victory.

"I've never seen a Hayden team ever quit, and that was evident out there tonight. They took us out of a lot of things we normally do."

n the end, Hayden dropped its sixth straight game to fall to 2- 8, but the Wildcats were still within two with five and a half minutes remaining before West was able to build its advantage to 11 down the stretch.

"We had some good spurts, but we were inconsistent tonight," said Goehring, whose team improved to 8-1.

Sophomore Ariana Scales led Topeka West with 14 points, while senior Melissa Bahner added 13 points, including a 9-of-12 performance at the line.

Lacie Manns, a 6-foot-1 junior, pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds for the Chargers while also scoring 8 points.

Hayden's loss overshadowed an outstanding night from junior guard Emily Eagan, who led all scorers with 20 points, including four 3- pointers. Jennifer Butler added 11 points for the Wildcats.

Hayden 8 10 7 17 --- 42Topeka West 10 10 9 21 --- 50Hayden (2-8) --- Eagan 6 4-4 20, Scheckel 1 1-2 3, Gartner 2 2-4 6, McGinnis 1 0-2 2, Butler 4 3-7 11, Huston 0 0- 0 0, Wright 0 0-0 0, Wempe 0 0-0 0, Nimz 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 10-19 42.

Topeka West (8-1) --- Huggins 4 1-6 9, Bahner 2 9-12 13, Scales 3 4-10 11, Manns 3 2-5 8, Molander 2 5-6 9, Malmstrom 0 0-0 0, Swanson 0 0-0 0, Davis 0 0-0 0, Gleason 0 0-2 0. Totals 14 21-41 50.

3-point goals --- Hayden 4 (Eagan 4), Topeka West 1 (Scales). Total fouls --- Hayden 26, Topeka West 15. Fouled out --- McGinnis.

Topeka High 49, Shawnee Heights 45

Topeka High held on to pull off the upset over Shawnee Heights, with sophomore Crystal Kemp clinching the win with two free throws with seven seconds remaining.

The game was tight throughout, with the Trojans, who improved to 4- 6, leading 9-8 after one quarter, 18-17 at halftime and 32-28 at the start of the fourth quarter.

Shawnee Heights, now 7-2, had an opportunity to tie the game at 47 with 10 seconds remaining, but Bryanne Albert missed the front end of a one and one. Kemp rebounded, was fouled and hit both charities to give the Trojans their final margin.

Senior Bre Huff led Topeka High with 18 points (three 3- pointers), backed by senior Anjanae Wilson with 14 points and Kemp with 12.

"Offensively we struggled at times, but we executed what we wanted," High coach Brenda Soldani said. "On the defensive end, everything I asked them to do, they did. We managed to do exactly what we wanted."

Shawnee Heights got a game-high 27 points from junior Dani McHenry, including three 3-pointers, but the T-Birds only had one other player with more than four points, Maggie Diehl with 9.

Topeka High 9 9 14 17 --- 49Shawnee Heights 8 9 11 17 --- 45Topeka High (4-6) --- Johnson 0 0-4 0, Huff 4 7-9 18, Gibbs 1 1-2 3, Wilson 4 6-9 14, Kemp 4 4-6 12, Ferrero 0 0-0 0, Gregory 1 0-0 2. Totals 14 18-30 49.

Shawnee Heights (7-2) --- Albert 1 1-3 3, Meissner 1 2-3 4, Smith 0 2-2 2, McHenry 11 2-4 27, Diehl 3 3-3 9, Edmonds 0 0-0 0, Bacon 0 0- 0 0, Wessel 0 0-2 0, Biery 0 0-0 0, Martin 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 10-17 45.

3-point goals --- Topeka High 3 (Huff 3), Shawnee Heights 3 (McHenry 3). Total fouls --- Topeka High 19, Shawnee Heights 25. Fouled out --- none.

Washburn Rural 57, Seaman 46

Seaman's chances of pulling off an upset ended with a six-and-a- half-minute dry spell in the third quarter.

The Vikings led virtually the entire first half and trailed just 25-23 at the half before going cold. Washburn Rural responded with a 13-0 run to build a 38-23 lead before Kelly Hainline hit two free throws with 1:35 left in the third quarter to end the drought.

Seaman, now 4-6, fought back to within six points with less than two minutes remaining but could not keep the 7-2 Junior Blues from stretching their winning streak to seven games.

Senior star Jeneka Joyce led all scorers with 20 points (three 3- pointers), while Rural junior Jayme Gergen added 12 points.

# posted by Medical Information : 2:52 AM