Washburn Rural girls basketball wins Lady Firebirds Winter Classic. Takeaways from the tournament run

To say that the No. 6 ranked Washburn Rural girls basketball team (12-1) had a good weekend would be quite an understatement.

On Thursday they opened their Lady Firebirds Winter Classic run with a 57-30 win over Leavenworth and followed that up on Friday with a 54-37 win over No. 3, and previously undefeated at 10-0, Derby.

They completed their tournament run with a 47-38 win on Saturday over No. 1, and previously undefeated at 9-0, Shawnee Mission West.

"We played three good teams," said Washburn Rural coach Kevin Bordewick. "Leavenworth wasn’t a pushover by any means. Derby is off the charts good, Shawnee Mission West is good."

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A physical contest against Derby was a back and forth affair early that turned into a rout for Washburn Rural in the second half.

Washburn Rural led 16-10 after the first quarter with eight points from junior guard MaRyah Lutz.

That lead would stretch to 35-23 at halftime with junior forward Brooklyn DeLeye and sophomore forward Jada Ingram beginning to have success in the post whether scoring or distributing.

"I think definitely after that first quarter," said DeLeye after the win when they began to feel the momentum shift. "We had the lead and we just knew if we kept at it, that game was ours."

The lead would balloon to 15 points after three quarters and got as high as 19 in the fourth quarter before the final whistle sounded for the 54-37 win.

"Every game is going to be tough in a tournament," said DeLeye. "We stepped it up a notch and we’ll have to again tomorrow to take that win."

And they did.

Washburn Rural held a six-point, 13-7 lead after the first quarter against Shawnee Mission West but were held to just two second-quarter points and clung to a 15-13 lead at halftime.

Big three-pointers from Washburn Rural sophomore guard Zoe Canfield helped stretch their lead to 30-22 after three quarters.

In the final frame, Washburn Rural kept Shawnee Mission West at arm's length before hitting their free throws down the stretch to secure the 47-38 win and tournament title.

Here are a few takeaways from their tournament run.

Zoe Canfield shifts momentum against Shawnee Mission East

Canfield led the team with 20 points against Shawnee Mission West on Saturday, with 15 of them coming from behind the arc and the other five at the free-throw line with under two minutes to go to help secure the win.

"She's been stroking the ball pretty good, especially in this tournament," said Bordewick on Canfield. "She had a lot of shots that were just kind of giving us more breathing room. Her shots opened up Emma's drive, her shots opened up Brooklyn and Jada inside."

With the defensive intensity from both teams throughout the game, all five of her three-pointers came at times where momentum was in the balance and steered it back towards Washburn Rural.

Two came in the first quarter with the first coming as Shawnee Mission West star guard S'Mya Nichols was starting to heat up with all of their points.

The second was the last points of the quarter to make it 13-7 after Nichols had cut their lead to 10-7 with a steal and layup.

The third and fourth three-pointers in the third quarter with one coming to start the second half after a two-point third quarter and the fourth giving them their biggest lead of the game to that point, 25-17, and forced a Shawnee Mission West timeout.

The final three-pointer came at the start of the fourth quarter and again gave Washburn Rural their biggest lead of the game, 33-22.

"It felt good coming off my hand starting in warms ups and shootarounds this morning," said Canfield. "I was just focused on one shot at a time and that really helped out."

Getting tougher

One of the things this group knew they had to improve on was physicality after a close win over Emporia at the beginning of the season.

"I think, especially from the beginning of the year, we’ve upped our physicality," said Lutz after their win over Derby.

Since a close Jan. 4 loss to Topeka High, they've now won seven straight and flashed some of that physicality in their wins over Derby and Shawnee Mission West.

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"I think our mental toughness has really taken some strides," said Bordewick after the tournament. "The mental can lead to (being) tougher physicality. I thought that's where most of our growth was."

The intensity was there from the start against Derby, you didn't have to look further than the battle at guard between Washburn Rural senior, and Grand Canyon commit, Emma Krueger and Derby junior, and Arkansas commit, Maryn Archer.

"Emma (is) that defensive stopper every team wishes they could have," said Bordewick after the Derby win. "She's long, athletic, and quick, she was a key figure in not allowing them what they wanted to do more."

Kreuger would win tournament MVP honors announced after their win over Shawnee Mission West.

In their win over Shawnee Mission West, yes, Nichols had a good night if you looked at the score sheet. But the defense made her earn every point she got.

Nichols, who went 13-15 from the charity stripe, had a game-high 25 points including all of the team's first-quarter points and 18 of the teams 22 points through three quarters.

Ingram, who along with DeLeye and Canfield, have played AAU ball with Nichols. Ingram drew the assignment and it was a team effort to slow down the junior with a 4-star ranking and a scouts grade score of 94 on ESPN.

"I knew she was a big body and would try to drive it to the goal," said Ingram. "I just tried my hardest to stay in front and minimize the need for (teammates) helping off."

Ingram's quickness and length allowed her to stay in front of Nichols, a three-level scorer, and the defense as a whole made sure their presence was felt.

When Ingram was out, junior Chloe Carlgren spelled her with some great minutes. Kreuger and DeLeye switched on her too and the defense as a whole did better at walling her off as the game went on while holding the rest of Shawne Mission West to a combined 13 points.

"We're getting there," said Bordewick when asked where his team stands at getting better physically. "We’ve got a ways to go as far as that but that is one thing we're trying to get the point across and I think they're starting to understand it."

Washburn Rural makes a statement

Incremental improvements keep this Washburn Rural team grounded. Whether you talk to Bordewick or any of the players the message is the same: Get better every day.

"I think it tells us a lot about ourselves," said Ingram after the win over Shawnee Mission West. "It tells us that we're a lot better team when we work together."

But it's hard not to look at this weekend as a statement of their potential for this year, with wins against the undefeated No. 1 and No. 3 teams in 6A, as they look to make another deep post-season run.

Washburn Rural scored 54 points against Derby, 29 more than Derby's average allowed, and gave up 37, 16 below Derby's scoring average.

Washburn Rural scored 47 against Shawnee Mission West, 25 more than Shawnee Mission West's average, and gave up 38, 7 points below Shawnee Mission West's scoring average.

"The way they ran their man offense was a little bit unique," said Bordewick on talking to his team about Shawnee Mission West. "What they do on offense was new to us. We haven’t run into a (defensive) zone that lengthy. Derby tried it a couple of times last night. I thought we adjusted well as the game went on."

That's two top ten wins on short rest and preparation time with Bordewick staying up late and waking up early to put together a scouting report for a shoot-around and walk-through on Saturday morning.

Their win over Derby on Friday, the second game of the tournament games played that day, ended just before 9 p.m. and Washburn Rural would cap off their tournament the next day with the game starting at 1:30 p.m.

Contact Seth Kinker at skinker@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @SethKinker

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Washburn Rural basketball beats 2 state-ranked teams, wins tournament