HUTCHINSON – After air-balling her first 3-point attempt of Thursday’s Class 4A state semifinal, Sophia Wichman could have been a little gun shy.
 
“I went in and air-balled that first one and I was like, ‘Wow!’” the Hayden sophomore said. “It didn’t get me down completely though. I was going to keep shooting.”
 
Hayden is sure glad she did. Though she only got one other 3-point attempt in the contest, it turned out to be the biggest shot of the game.
 
With Hayden trailing defending Class 4A state champion Wellington by two with less than a minute left in their semifinal clash, Wichman confidently stepped into a 3-pointer from the left wing and drained it with 38 seconds left for what proved to be the game-winner in a 50-45 Wildcat victory.
 
“It makes me so happy,” Wichman said. “You couldn’t wipe a smile off my face even if you wanted to for the rest of the day. Maybe not even the rest of this week.”
 
Hayden (21-6) advanced to its first state championship game since 2016. And if the test of taking down the defending champion Crusaders was a tall one in the semifinals, the task of knocking off the all-time leader in state titles in the championship game will be even great.
 
Bishop Miege (19-8), owner of 25 state titles in its program’s rich history, awaits after beating Rock Creek 59-43.
 

 
To get there, however, it took the confidence that Wichman has built in the sport in which she’s more prominent. One of Class 4A’s top tennis players, Wichman played in a state doubles championship match as a freshman and was a state placer with a new partner last fall as well.
 
The ebbs and flows that come with a tennis match, having to bounce back from a kill shot into the net or a winner sent wide serves her well on the basketball court as well.
 
“In tennis, it’s either just you by yourself or you with your doubles partner, so there’s a lot of self-confidence and that energy level coming from yourself,” Wichman said. “So I didn’t need much energy or confidence coming from the bench.”
 
Immediately before Wichman’s hero shot, Hayden coach Carvel Reynoldson had made a strategic substitution, bringing senior Lauren Borjon off the bench with the idea that perhaps she would be taking a tying or go-ahead 3-pointer depending on how Wellington’s Dru Zeka fared at the free throw line.
 
When Zeka missed both to leave Wellington’s lead at just two, the stage was set for Borjon.
 
“She’s our best shooter,” Reynoldson said. “We had a play called for Lauren if they’d made the free throw. But I said if we get the rebound, just push it quick so we really weren’t running a play at that point. But Lauren was definitely in there to shoot it.”
 
And when the opportunity came Wichman’s way, she took it.
 
“I’d much rather LB take that shot because she’s such a good 3-point shooter and everyone has faith in her,” Wichman said. “But I just said, ‘I’m open. We’re down and I need to make this shot.’ So I let it fly.”
 

 
While Borjon didn’t have the hero moment at the end, she and fellow reserve Emberly Connell did some heroic work in the first half. Wellington blanketed Hayden standout Hailey Schmidtlein throughout the contest, holding her to just 10 points on 4-of-17 shooting. In the first half, she made just 1 of 6 shots.
 
Fellow guard Blakely Walter also was struggling, going 2 of 11 in the first half and 2 of 15 in the game. In the opening half, Hayden’s starters combined for just nine points
 
But Hayden was still able to build a 10-point lead midway through the second quarter thanks to the efforts of Borjon and Connell. Borjon hit both of her 3-point shots in the first quarter, helping the Wildcats to an 11-8 lead at the end of the period.
 
Connell, meanwhile, took it to Wellington’s size inside and finished with six points in the half while Borjon finished with eight.
 
“They could be starters,” Reynoldson said of the duo. “I keep telling (Borjon), ‘You have to shoot the ball when you’re open,’ and the second half of the year, that’s what she does. She hit two huge ones.
 
“And then Emberly, the energy she gives off the bench, we nicknamed her ‘The Worm’ because she looks like Dennis Rodman.”
 
After taking a 25-15 lead midway with 3:37 left in the first half, Hayden saw Wellington close the half within 25-19. The Crusaders carried the momentum over into the third quarter and outscored the Wildcats 12-5 to start the period with Zeka hitting a 3-pointer to give Wellington its first lead since late in the first quarter.
 
Wellington led 36-33 at the end of the third, but Hayden sandwiched two baskets by Schmidtlein around an Ella Foster 3-pointer to go back up 40-36. Still up 42-37, Hayden saw Wellington score eight straight to lead 45-2 with 2:24 left.
 
Wichman made a free throw with 1:23 left to stop the Crusader’s run, setting up her hero shot.
 
Zeka had a chance to put Wellington back on top, but missed a guarded drive to the bucket. Walter ended up with the ball and was fouled with 23 seconds left and sank both free throws. Cruz Cornejo then missed a tying 3-pointer and Schmidtlein made2 of 4 free throws in the last 11 seconds to seal it.
 

 
“Resilience is a good word because we stayed together the whole time,” Reynoldson said. “This is huge because some of (Wellington’s) girls were involved in some huge games last year where they came out on top. If we would have fizzled out, it would have been, ‘OK, they’re the tougher team and they’re used to it.’ I’m so glad we didn’t fizzle out. We played tough down the stretch.”
 
Hayden’s full-court press harassed Wellington into 21 turnovers and kept the Crusaders sped up the whole game. Wellington finished just 17 of 48 from the field shooting and just 2 of 14 from 3-point range.
 
After an abysmal shooting night from three in the quarterfinals (1 of 16), Hayden hit 6 of 21 against Wellington with Foster connecting on 3 of 4.
 
“It’s real strange because at the beginning of the year I would have said we’re not a real good shooting team,” Reynoldson said. “And then about eight games ago, we set the state record for threes. … We’d been shooting it pretty good until the state tournament and I don’t know what we were today, but it was better.”
 
Schmidtlein did finish with 10 points to lead a balanced Hayden scoring attack with five Wildcats scoring at least 7 points. Wellington, which lost for just the second time this season, was led by 15 from Zeka and 14 from Kirstyn Gregory.
 

 
BISHOP MIEGE 59, ROCK CREEK 43
 
With as many weapons as Bishop Miege has at its disposal, there’s no telling who will come up big for the Stags.
 
So when sophomore guard Scarlett Singleton came out and buried all three of her 3-point attempts in the first quarter of Miege’s semifinal game with Rock Creek, she was quick to draw the praise of Stags coach Mike Allen.
 
“It’s really incredible when our ‘secondary players’ can take the pressure off Jayla (McClinton), Mary (Grant) and Finley (Lemay),” Allen said. “And obviously Scarlett gave us that today, which was tremendous.”
 
Maybe even moreso than most people realized.
 
For starters, Singleton was feeling a touch under the weather before the game started, having stomach pains. But that was nothing compared to what her fellow guards were experiencing.
After having a nice, healthy walk-through practice on Wednesday following Tuesday’s tough quarterfinal win over Eudora, things got a little hectic for Allen.
 
At 5:30 a.m. – less than 12 hours before the Stags’ semifinal tipoff – he got a call from Grant’s mother, informing him that his standout senior guard was sick. Really sick.
 
“Mary had an IV this morning, that’s how sick she was,” Allen said. “We weren’t even sure she was going to come down to the tournament. It’s incredible.”
 

 
While Grant did make it, things got even more tenuous for the Stags.
 
“And then Finley, at lunch today, started getting sick and she slept in the car all the way up until the third quarter (of the first semifinal),” Allen said. So she didn’t even go to the shoot around. There was no sign of this at the last practice. It was a great, light practice walking through stuff.”
 
Grant and Lemay both recovered enough in time to start the semifinal and whatever bug Singleton had had no effects. Her huge first quarter as well as six points from Grant propelled the Stags to a 22-11 lead over Rock Creek by the end of the period and Miege was never truly challenged after that.
 
Not that Rock Creek rolled over. The Mustangs trailed by 15 at halftime but kept the margin pretty much in the 10-15 point range, never going away but never really able to cut into Miege’s lead and put pressure on the Stags.
 
“Rock Creek does a good job,” Allen said. “That (Kylee) Frazee is a good guard and their post player (Rory Pitzer) does a good job and we knew they’d be a handful and they were. They fight hard because that’s how (Rock Creek coach Trevor Keller) does it. He has them ready to play.
 
“Any time they had a short little run of five points or whatever, we made a play to end it.”
 
Frazee and Pitzer carried Rock Creek throughout with Frazee finishing with 22 points and 9 rebounds and Pitzer adding 14 points. But no other Mustang had more than three points and made only two field goals.
 
Singleton never really cooled off after her hot start and wound up hitting 5 of 7 3-pointers in the game for 15 points. That matched Grant, who overcame her illness to score 15. Miege was led by McClinton, who scored 16.
 
In returning to their sixth straight championship game, the Stags won’t have to contend with the team that ended their five-year reign in Class 4A. Defending champion Wellington was knocked off by Hayden 50-45 and Allen said he wasn’t completely shocked that the Stags and Crusaders won’t meet at the state tournament for the fifth straight year.
 
“I’m going to be honest, as a coaching staff, we thought Hayden was going to win,” Allen said. “I’m not trying to take anything away from Wellington. But the body of work and who Hayden’s had to battle against over the course of the season, that’s what we felt.”
 
CLASS 4A GIRLS SEMIFINAL BOXSCORES
 
HAYDEN 50, WELLINGTON 45
 
Hayden … 11 … 14 … 8 … 17 … -- … 50
Wellington … 8 … 11 … 17 … 9 … -- … 45
 
Hayden (21-6) – Walter 2-15 3-4 7, Schmidtlein 4-17 2-5 10, Foster 3-4 0-0 9, Huscher 0-2 0-0 0, Watts 0-4 2-2 2, Wichman 1-3 1-2 4, Mitchell 1-4 0-0 2, Borjon 3-4 0-0 8, Wrench 0-0 0-0 0, Connell 4-9 0-0 8. Totals 18-62 8-13 50.
 
Wellington (23-2) – Barton 3-9 1-2 7, Zeka 5-17 3-7 15, Wright 2-5 0-0 4, Cornejo 1-4 1-4 3, Gregory 5-11 4-4 14, Ginter 1-2 0-0 2, Gulick 0-0 0-0 0, Newman 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-48 9-17 45.
 
3-point goals – Hayden 6-21 (Foster 3-4, Borjon 2-3, Wichman 1-2, Blakely 0-5, Schmidtlein 0-5, Mitchell 0-1, Connell 0-1); Wellington 2-14 (Zeka 2-9, Cornejo 0-3, Gregory 0-2). Rebounds – Hayden 41 (Schmidtlein 9); Wellington 40 (Barton 9). Assists – Hayden 10 (Four players with 2 each); Wellington 11 (Zeka 3, Wright 3). Turnovers – Hayden 18, Wellington 21. Total fouls -- Hayden 15, Wellington 16. Fouled out – Wellington: Barton, Wright.
 
BISHOP MIEGE 59, ROCK CREEK 43
 
Bishop Miege … 22 … 16 … 10 … 11 … -- … 59
Rock Creek … 11 … 12 … 11 … 9 … -- … 43
 
Bishop Miege (19-8) – Lemay 2-8 2-2 7, Singleton 5-7 0-0 15, Grant 5-12 5-5 15, McClinton 6-11 4-5 16, Erskine 1-3 0-0 3, Switzer 0-0 0-0 0, Schleicher 0-0 0-0 0, Calderon 1-2 0-0 3, Maher 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-43 11-12 59.
 
Rock Creek (23-4) – Martinie 0-3 2-4 2, Frazee 9-16 3-7 22, Friess 1-5 0-0 3, Pitzer 6-17 2-2 14, Hake 0-2 0-0 0, Adkins 0-2 0-0 0, Whaley 0-1 0-0 0, Lies 0-0 0-0 0, Libby 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 17-47 7-13 43.
 
3-point goals – Miege 8-19 (Singleton 5-7, Lemay 1-6, Erskine 1-3, Calderon 1-2, Grant 0-1); Rock Creek 2-9 (Frazee 1-1, Friess 1-3, Martinie 0-2, Hake 0-1, Adkins 0-1, Whaley 0-1). Rebounds – Miege 27 (McClinton 8); Rock Creek 29 (Friess 6). Assists – Miege 14 (Lemay 6); Rock Creek 9 (Martinie 5). Turnovers – Miege 13, Rock Creek 11. Total fouls -- Miege 16, Rock Creek 15. Fouled out – none.