Girls advance to sub-state title game with win over Topeka High

Greg Woods, Editor-in-Chief

Before Wednesday night’s home sub-state matchup with Topeka High, the Manhattan High girls basketball team was concerned with two players in particular: Adrianna Henderson and Erica Birch.

The former is a versatile guard, capable of putting up points in the blink of an eye. The latter is a 6-2 forward who routinely grabs rebounds and sticks them back.

The good news for Manhattan, however, is that at the end of the game, Birch totaled just four points.

And that’s a big reason why the Lady Indians downed Topeka High, 68-55, and moved on to their 6A sub-state bracket’s championship game against Derby on Friday.

Rebounding was one of head coach Scott Mall’s primary concerns about the Lady Trojans, and on his team’s third meeting with Topeka, it was not nearly the issue it was in the teams’ previous two clashes.

Two of Birch’s four points arrived at the free throw line, and on the rebounding side, Mall was pleased with the defensive effort of junior Kennedy Wilson, who guarded Birch for much of the night.

“Birch didn’t get hardly anything, and [we] kept her off the boards,” Mall said. “We were trying to take charges inside, and I thought Kennedy did a super job of doing what we asked her to do inside.”

As for Henderson, the junior guard tallied 27 points. The problem for Topeka High, though, was that she was met stride-for-stride by her perimeter counterpart: Gigi McAtee.

The Manhattan junior guard posted a career-high 24 points — including 17 in the first half — and defended Henderson for most of the contest.

She said her supporting defenders aided her in the oft-frustrating job of guarding Henderson.

“I was prepared. We had to make sure we got out on the shot,” McAtee said. “And I had tons of help behind me, which was really good knowing that.”

McAtee’s scoring, though, was perhaps an even more integral part of the win.

Her 17 first-half points lifted Manhattan to a 31-23 lead at the intermission, and the lead found many of its roots in the Lady Indians’ 13-0 run to end the half.

“It was huge for us,” Mall said. “We made some big plays; ran a play out of a timeout there late, and the girls did a super job on a play that we had just put in this week. Every basket right then is a big one.”

Several arrived thanks to Manhattan’s defense.

MHS forced Topeka High into 14 first-half turnovers — seven in the second quarter — and turned them into buckets on the other end, two of which McAtee registered on a breakaway that ended in a Euro-step and two points.

But the eight-point lead at halftime, as secure as it may have seemed, was not so.

Because Topeka was not done. The Lady Trojans parried each of Manhattan’s attempts to widen the lead, and effort that brought the road team back within one when Henderson converted on a layup.

Manhattan senior guard Madison Mittie, who finished with 21 points, connected on a layup of her own to end the quarter, but Topeka had already set foot on the comeback trail. Manhattan entered what could have been the final eight minutes of its season with a slim 46-43 advantage.

But the Lady Indians’ season lived on.

It lived on, and even in the face of Henderson’s tenacious effort to make her own team’s season endure. She logged five points in the fourth, but Mittie opened the fourth with an and-one, and when Topeka entered the bonus with just under five minutes to play, the sight of a win began to dim.

The Lady Indians converted on 13-of-14 free throws in the final frame.

“When we had a bad stretch, then we responded, then we hit our free throws,” Mall said. “Girls stepped up and hit free throws…. Hitting the free throws there late was huge.”

And now with Topeka High in the rearview mirror, Manhattan can adjust its focus to the task at hand, one that will decide whether it will go to state for the third time in four years.

That task is top-seeded Derby, a team that boasts a formidable 18-3 record to go along with two freshmen that have done much of the heavy lifting this season.

Mittie, though, said her team is not intimidated.

“We’re really excited to play Derby,” she said. “We know that they have a big 6-4 post, so we’re just going to have to stop her…. We’re excited, and we really want to go to state.”

McAtee concurred, while offering insight into freshman Kia Wilson’s potential against Derby’s forwards.

“We played them this summer, and Kia just killed their big,” McAtee said. “Motivating her to work hard; motivating Kennedy to really get on her…. And just playing solid defense.”