Manhattan High girls\u2019 basketball fought back throughout but suffered its first Centennial League loss Friday night, falling 58-54 to Topeka High.<\/p>\n
The Indians entered riding a four-game win streak and a perfect 5-0 league mark, looking to complete a season sweep after opening Centennial League play with a 67-55 road win over the Trojans. Topeka High had other plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cTopeka High has been playing really, really well lately,\u201d Manhattan head coach Scott Mall said. \u201cAnd we got kind of a hole early, it hurt, but we got ourselves back in it. But just a game like this, when (Topeka High) is playing well and hitting shots, it’s the little things.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got a lot of inside shots that were good looks under pressure, but (didn\u2019t convert). We can make those shots. Those are ones you got to put in, and we will \u2014 we have. But just tonight, they didn’t hit enough of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Behind Shy Rayton\u2019s 32 points, including 21 in the second half, the Trojans secured the road victory. T-High made more 3-pointers than two-point shots, including seven 3s from Rayton.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe can hit threes, but also one of her best things is driving to the basket,\u201d Mall said. \u201cShe’s really tough to stop. She’s quick, she’s athletic and she slides in and gets good looks all the time. You put that together with her ability to shoot 3s, and it’s really hard to guard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manhattan dropped to 15-4 overall and 5-1 in league play, while Topeka High improved to 11-8 and 5-2, closing the gap in the race atop the standings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we win out, if we can keep winning game by game, we still win the league, and that still puts us in a good spot for sub-state, because we\u2019d really like to be in the top four,\u201d Mall said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a tough stretch ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jelena Depusoir led Manhattan with 12 points, all in the first half, while Kat Ball added 11 points on a night she was also named winter homecoming queen.<\/p>\n
How it happened<\/p>\n
Manhattan found itself in an early hole as Topeka High connected from distance, knocking down three early 3-pointers to build a 19-8 advantage. The Indians settled in late in the first quarter, trimming the deficit behind seven early points from Depusoir.<\/p>\n
The late first-quarter momentum carried into the second. Manhattan cut the margin to five before Topeka High banked its fourth triple of the half. That\u2019s when Avery Ingram and Evie Banks answered with 3-pointers of their own, helping Manhattan close within 29-27 at halftime.<\/p>\n
The Indians briefly took the lead to open the second half, but Rayton took control in the third quarter. She scored 12 points in the period, stretching Topeka High\u2019s advantage back to nine. Manhattan\u2019s offense stalled at times during the frame, and the Indians trailed 45-37 entering the fourth.<\/p>\n
Manhattan made another push in the final quarter despite fouls dictating the pace. The Indians trimmed the deficit to three with just over a minute remaining, fueled in part by seven second-half points from Banks.<\/p>\n
Turnovers proved costly down the stretch, however. After a pair of missed free throws on the Topeka High end, Delaney Larson drained a deep 3-pointer to pull Manhattan within two with 30 seconds to play.<\/p>\n
Rayton returned to the free-throw line on the next possession and converted, helping seal the Trojans\u2019 win.<\/p>\n
Up next, Manhattan heads to Hayden on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
TOPEKA HIGH 58,<\/p>\n
MANHATTAN 54<\/p>\n
T-High (11-8, 5-2) \u2014 21; 6; 16; 13; \u2014 58<\/p>\n
MHS (15-4, 5-1) \u2014 13; 16; 10; 17; \u2014 54<\/p>\n
INDIVIDUAL SCORING<\/p>\n
MHS \u2014 Larson 6, Becket 2, Depusoir 12, Jorryn Hall 2, Ingram 3, Ball 11, Busch 8, Banks 10<\/p>\n
T-High \u2014 Short 4, Wayne 6, Brown 2, Marshall 4, Rayton 32, Carlyl 8, Gotru 2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manhattan High girls\u2019 basketball fought back throughout but suffered its first Centennial League loss Friday night, falling 58-54…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[8918,11582,11581,20431,75,84,83,8919,11587,9,24,8920,8917,8921,63,11585],"class_list":["post-133264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-american-football","tag-champion-seasons-in-american-football","tag-college-football-conference-seasons","tag-free-throw","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-national-football-league","tag-ncaa-division-i-fbs-football-teams","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nfl-seasons","tag-nfl-teams","tag-nfl-teams-seasons","tag-nyc","tag-seasons-in-american-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}