Congratulations to our Lady Titans Basketball team after taking the title home in the Capital City Classic Championship in Topeka on Saturday, January 27th. Along with winning the title, Senior Ramya Kennedy was selected to the all-tournament team for her amazing performance! And after reaching her 1000 career points, Zion Butler was named the Most Valuable Player on the Team! Teammate and Senior, Mariah Barkus, expresses that “It was wonderful getting to celebrate them along with winning first place.”
And after beating Topeka Washburn Rural 44-38 in overtime… the ladies won.
Mariah Barkus recollects the moments when the Ladies won:
“It felt amazing to win the championship! I think the best feeling that I felt was getting to bring something back to our school that everyone could be proud of. Additionally, I loved getting to see everyone’s excitement once the buzzer went off and seeing all of us storming the court and hugging each other.”
A freshman on the team, Chloe Hartzler, had this to say about the moment:
“Winning a championship was amazing! We’ve put in a lot of hard work so it was nice to see it pay off. I’m so proud of how we handled the adversity and came out on top.” It truly was a moment to remember for the girls.
During the game, the ladies were confident in their teammates and knew that everyone had each other’s back.
“When we miss some shots we don’t get discouraged. We know if we keep playing shots we’ll either start to fall or one of our teammates will pick us up.” Chloe Hartzler affirms “I felt good about our chances of winning the whole game…Throughout the game every time Washburn Rural made a run we answered so we were confident we would win…”
I believe the mid-season tournament helped us as a team on and off the court; this was evident by the way we played. Sharing the ball was an example of this that greatly contributed to us coming out on top in all three games. I think our ball movement was the best it’s been all-season. Utilizing each player made us dangerous to other teams because they had to guard all 5 players! Another example was our defense. As a small team, we often compete against teams that outsize us. In turn, we had to help each other on the court during defensive possessions and even more so in the past tournament as we were going against some of the best teams in the state. Each of us had each other backs. All in all, I think these factors allowed us to have great teamwork that led to the 1st place outcome.” Mariah Barkus expresses.
Congratulation Ladies!!!
