BY CHARLES CHANEY

One of the premiere tournaments in the state of Kansas tips off at El Dorado High School and we’re here to bring you coverage from all 12 games over the three day span.

The tournament will see teams from every where from Mill Valley, Topeka and Wichita—to name a few— come to El Dorado and try to over throw Maize South’s tournament dominance.

Here’s a recap from the first day with box scores and scoring leaders.

Top scorer of the day: Landri Schaffer, 28 points

Schaffer scored 17 points in the second half to help Gardner-Edgerton outlast Goddard in the final game of the night. She put up 10 in the first quarter alone but had to fight for points the rest of the way. She now had back-to-back big games against Goddard, with 32 last year in the third place game and 28 on Thursday night.

Top performance: Zoey Buckner-Franklin, KMC

The sophomore sensation from Kapaun Mt. Carmel did it all for Kapaun in their 66-50 win over Mill Valley. She defended, she scored and she rebounded. She was anywhere and every where. She finished with a ho-hum 24 points in the win. She also grabbed a ton of rebounds and forced a bunch of turnovers. In our first time seeing her this season, she lived up to the hype.

Game 1: Maize South 52, Augusta 17

Maize South jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead and never looked back as the two-time defending tournament champions won 52-17 over Augusta.

It was the defense that was too much for the Orioles. Augusta struggled early with the full court press and when they did get it across half court, they were still smothered.

It was Aliyah Singhateh who got it going early for the Lady Mavs. She had eight points in the first half as they build a 22-5 lead at the end of the first quarter. Then, used more defense, paired with a handful of her teammates that held to a ballooned, 33-9 lead at the break.

Augusta tried to shoot their way out of it, attempted their 3s but the lid never came off the basket despite good looks.

The Orioles settled down in the second quarter and beyond. While they mitigated turnovers compared to the first quarter, eight in the first quarter and nine for the remainder of the game, the lid never came off the basket.

Maize South had three players score 10 points with Singhateh (12), Jaela Thompson (10) and Kaylee Brunton (10). In all, the Lady Mavs had 10 different players score in the win.

It’s the seventh consecutive season Maize South has won a first round game at the Lady Cat Classic.

Augusta was led by Ella Bourm who scored five points.

Maize South 52, Augusta 17

Maize So. 22 11 12 7 — 52
Augusta 5 4 6 2 – 17

Maize South 52:

Thompson 5 0-0 – 10; Singhateh 5 2-4 – 12; Seals 1 (1) 0-0 – 5; Brunton 4 2-3 – 10; Hill 1 0-0 – 2; Davee 2 0-0 – 4; Chandler 1 0-0 – 2; Parr 1 0-0 – 2; Harden 1 0-0 – 2; #11 1 0-0 – 2; #23 0 (1) 0-0 – 3. TOTALS: 21-47 2-16 4-7 – 52.

Augusta 17:

Ratcliff 1 0-0 – 2; Ella Bourm 1 (1) 0-0 – 5; Pfeifer 0 (1) 1-1 – 4; Lichlyter 1 0-0 – 2; Ramey 1 0-0 – 2; Fleming 1 0-0 – 2. TOTALS: 5-20 2-17 1-2 – 17.

Game 2: Kapaun Mt. Carmel 66, Mill Valley 50

Zoey Buckner-Franklin scored 14 first half points as Kapaun Mount Carmel made themselves look like their boys’ team as they controlled the entire game against Mill Valley, winning 66-50 and advancing to the semifinals of the Lady Cat Classic.

Buckner-Franklin, a transfer from Wichita Independent, finished with a team high 24 points, always found a way to be in the right place and pull down any rebound she could. There was a stretch where she grabbed six consecutive defensive rebounds. She was everywhere.

While many feel KMC is Buckner-Franklin and that’s it, the Lady Crusaders showed on Thursday on Alumni court, they’re a deep squad and should be reckoned with. They had 10 different scorers and six different with multiple buckets.

It’s why they Kapaun was able to build an early 15-8 lead before Mill Valley’s Riley Marshall got going. The Sophomore hit a 3 and the Jaguars were able to claw back into the game.

Then, Kapaun appeared to play mad. After a pair of free throws from Marshall, Kapaun would go on a 17-3 run to end the half that was littered with a bunch of buckets from Buckner-Franklin and really good defense from the Crusaders. They held Mill Valley to 1 of 10 in the second half, including going 0 of 3 and six turnovers over the half’s final four minutes.

Kapaun led 36-19 at halftime.

Mill Valley kept trying to fight back in the second half on the back of Marshall. She’d score 16 points in the second half, trying to will the Jaguars back into the game but for everything she or Averie Landon would do, the Lady Crusaders had an answer.

After Kapaun had built a 47-27 lead with 5:00 to go in the third quarter and forcing a Mill Valley timeout, the Jags fought back, cutting it down to 10 once again.

Bucker-Franklin wouldn’t let them any closer.

The sophomore was relentless on defense and moved without the ball with ease as she would go on and help the Crusaders extend their lead back out to a comfortable, 56-39 early in the fourth quarter.

While Marshall’s heroics would fall short, she would finish with a game high 26 points.

McCoy Phister finished with 13 points for KMC. Maddy Spiers added nine as well.

For Mill Valley, Landon attributed 15 points, while Alexa Short had five and Leah Konen had three points.

KMC 66, Mill Valley 50

Mill Valley 14 5 18 13 – 50
Kapaun 15 21 11 19 – 66

Mill Valley 50:

Marshall 6 (3) 5-8 – 26; Landon 2 (3) 4-5 – 15; Konen 0 (1) 0-0 – 3; Short 2 1-1 – 5; Benson 0 1-2 – 1. TOTALS: 9-31 7-19 11-16 50.

Kapaun 66:

Spiers 4 1-2 – 9; Buckner-Franklin 7 (1) 7-10 – 24; Knipp 1 2-2 – 4; Phister 3 (2) 1-2 – 13; Jacobs 1 0-0 – 2; Rudy 2 0-0 – 4; Laufer 2 0-0 – 4; Romer 0 1-2 1; #2 1 0-0 – 2; #3 0 (1) 0-0 – 3. TOTALS: 21-42 4-8 12-18 – 66.

Game 3: Topeka Hayden 64, El Dorado 15

The No. 1 team in Class 4A jumped out to a 13-0 lead before the host Lady Cats could get on the board and that’s all Topeka Hayden would need.

Despite a valiant effort from El Dorado squad that’s searching for a first round win for the first time since 2019, Hayden got the best of them, 64-15.

El Dorado had six in the scoring colum, with Ellee Bressler leading the way with four points.

Hailey Schmidtlein led all with 21 points. Her teammates, Millie Ramsay (12 points) and Brylee Meier (13 points) were equally as productive for the Wildcats of Topeka Hayden.

Meier hit four consecutive threes during a run in the second quarter where Hayden hit five consecutive shots and seven of nine. It turned a relatively close 13-point game a comfortable lead.

Audrina Scott, Maddison Young and Jenna Hadley scored for the Lady Cats right before half to cut the lead down to 38-11.

Addison Hull and Ellie Bressler had back-to-back buckets in the third to put the Lady Cats on the board in the second half.

However, Schmidtlein and Co. were just too much with their size as they were able to turn second and third chances into buckets.

Hayden 64, El Dorado 15

Hayden 13 25 14 12 – 64
El Dorado 2 9 4 0 – 15

Hayden 64:

Schmidtlein 9 (1) 0-1 – 21; Ramsay 5 2-4 – 12; Watts 1 1-4 – 3; Meier 0 (4) 1-2 – 13; Walter 1 (2) 0-0 – 8; Greco 1 0-0 – 2; Huscher 0 0-2 – 0; Connell 1 0-0 – 2; Wichman 0 1-2 – 1; Wrench 1 0-0 – 2. TOTALS: 19-26 7-23 5-15 – 64.

El Dorado 15:

Bressler 2 0-1 – 2; Kemboi 1 0-0 – 2; Scott 1 0-0 – 2; Hadley 1 0-0 – 2; Young 0 (1) 0-0 – 3; Hull 1 0-0 – 2. TOTALS: 6-23 1-7 0-1 – 15.

Game 4: Gardner-Edgerton 48, Goddard 46

Landri Schaffer scored 28 points as Gardner-Edgerton fended off a feisty Goddard Lions squad in the final game of Day 1 in the Lady Cat Classic, 48-46.

Gardner-Edgerton now has won three consecutive first round games in the Lady Cat, dating back to the 2021 season when they could not attend due to COVID.

Schaffer’s 28 points ties her for the 11th best single game scoring performance at the Lady Cat Classic.

Early on it appeared to be an old fashion barn burner as both teams shot the lights out, getting to the rim and making big buckets. The second quarter was the opposite, with both teams each scoring three points—and Gardner-Edgerton going empty from the field—the game had flipped into a low down defensive struggle. A 19-14, Blazers lead after one quarter was only 22-17 at the break.

Both defenses jumped gaps, contested shots and committed tough, hard fouls.

It would be Schaffer that helped the Blazers jump out to a lead in the third as she was able to score on and and-one and then hit a couple of steal lay ups that pushed them ahead 30-19 mid way through the third.

Even when Presley Schmidt picked up her fourth foul halfway through the third, the Lions didn’t panic. They kept their composure and fought back.

As coach Jeremy Heim said it was going to be hard and he believed in his team, they started their comeback. The Lions chipped away at the decifit by getting to the line. Audie Phillips-Blevins hit four three throws, while senior Marayah Coleman canned in a big three at the end of the third quarter, cutting the. deficit to four.

Even after Schaffer’s lay up pushed the lead out to 38-33 with 3:28 remaining in regulation, it was Phillips-Blevens 3 cut the lead down to 38-36 and they would go blow-for-blow down the stretch.

In the end, it would be Schaffer once again. This time hitting a 3-pointer with under a minute, pushing the Gardner-Edgerton lead out to 43-39 lead.

Goddard even had a shot with 10 seconds remaining but they stepped out after inbounding the ball, ending their chances at a comeback.

Coleman led the Lions with 13 points. Schmidt had nine as well. Phillips-Blevins went 5 for 5 at the line and finished with eight. Sarah Potter had 13 to pitch in, including a big fourth with six in the quarter.

For Gardner-Edgerton, Addisen Ratley had nine and Kylie Kyle had seven to contribute as well.

G-E 48, Goddard 46

Gardner 19 3 11 15 – 48
Goddard 14 3 12 17 – 46

Gardner-Edgerton 48:

Schaffer 5 (4) 6-9 – 28; Ratley 2 (1) 2-4 – 9; Kyle 1 5-6 – 7; E. Holle 1 0-0 – 2; A. Holle 0 2-2 – 2. TOTALS: 9-25 4-14 15-21 – 48.

Goddard 46: Schmidt 3 3-4 – 9; Bowyer 2 0-0 – 4; Potter 3 (1) 4-4 – 13; Coleman 1 (2) 3-3 – 11; Phillips-Blevins 0 (1) 5-5 – 8; Stevens 0 1-2 – 1. TOTALS: 9-30 4-14 16-18 – 46.

32nd Annual Lady Cat Classic
El Dorado High School
El Dorado, Kansas

Thursday, Jan. 30

Game 1: Maize South 52, Augusta 17
Game 2: Kapaun Mt. Carmel 66, Mill Valley 50
Game 3: Topeka Hayden 64, El Dorado 15
Game 4: Gardner-Edgerton 48, Goddard 46

Friday, Jan. 31

Game 5: El Dorado (1-8) vs. Goddard (4-7), 2:30 p.m.
Game 6: Augusta (3-6) vs. Mill Valley (5-6), 4:15 p.m.
Game 7: Maize South (10-1) vs. Kapaun Mt. Carmel (8-3), 6 p.m.
Game 8: Topeka Hayden (11-0) vs. Gardner-Edgerton (6-4), 7:45 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 1

Championship game: Game 7 vs. Game 8, 4:15 p.m.
Third place game: Game 7 vs. Game 8 loser, 2:30 p.m.
Fifth place game: Game 5 vs. Game 6 winner, 12:45 p.m.
Seventh place game: Game 5 vs. Game 6 loser, 11 a.m.