Kansas Hoops Roundup: January 12th

<p>What a night of basketball across the state of Kansas Tuesday, January 12th was, with tight rivalry games taking center stage, new faces stepping up, and familiar ones coming up when the games came down to winning time. Today we take a look around the state at some of the key standouts from Tuesday evening.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>Shawnee Mission East Dominate Across the Board</strong></em></p> <p><strong>Top Performer</strong></p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="889472" first="Preston" last="Reynolds"], 2021 6’4 Guard: Reynolds put together another solid all around statistical performance and got it done on the defensive side of the floor as well, finding his way into passing lanes and getting himself available to start transition breaks. Reynolds put together a 14 point, 9 rebound, and 8 assist night.</p> <p><strong>Notables</strong></p> <p>2021 6’8 Forward [player_tooltip player_id="889464" first="Will" last="Townsend"], 2023 Forward Dillon Mong, and 2022 Guard Emmett Hill: each scored 16 points for the Lancers in their win over Gardner. Mong and Hill each shot the ball extremely well from the perimeter and ran the wings with great pace and made plays in the transition game as well. Townsend not only showed off the physical presence on the offense end, but he had a couple of tremendous outlet passes that initiated the break.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>Ice in the Veins </strong></em></p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="891912" first="Nahcs" last="Wahwassuck"], 2022 6’5 Guard/Wing, Royal Valley: Keeping his squad in the game most of the night, Wahwassuck put the final touches on stealing a win with a pull up baseline jumper driving off of the left hand with a little under 2 seconds left. His next level length was really showcased as he was able to get the look off pretty clean with 2 collapsing defenders. The Royal Valley standout finished with 18 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists. 2022 Guard [player_tooltip player_id="891923" first="Mason" last="Thomas"] also hit a big time 3 on the previous possession that set up Royal Valley to be in position to win the game at the end.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="1076405" first="Howard" last="Johnson"], 2022 6’1 Guard, Junction City: Looking to bounce back off of a game he’d like to forget, Johnson came out with an attitude against Highland Park on Tuesday. The Junction City guard scored 25 in the ball game including the final 5 points of the game in the closing minute. First it was a tremendous and 1 finish to get the game tied, and then hit a beautiful floater with about a second left to send the Blue Jays home with a win. </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>Career Scoring Nights</strong></em></p> <p>DaRon Davis, 2023 5’10 Guard, Caney Valley: The electric guard put on a scoring clinic and finished with a career high 27 points in a win for Caney Valley. The point guard is developing and getting better with each minute on the floor.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Landon Bennett, 2021 6’2 Guard, Cherryvale: Bennett shot the ball extremely well on catch and shoot situations and played well off the bounce on shot fakes to put together a tremendous career high with 37 points in a win.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><em><strong>Stepping Up</strong></em></p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="946207" first="Kris" last="Daniels"], 2021 5’11 Guard, Lawrence Free State: Daniels is always one of the hardest workers and effort givers each time he steps on the floor. He is quick both up the floor and laterally which makes him a pest on the defensive end and during his senior campaign he is starting to knock down outside shots as well. He put together a 12 point performance in Free State’s win on Tuesday to compliment his tremendous passion, energy, and defensive play.</p>