Bishop Miege basketball teams show off in shootout

For years, the Cable Dahmer Shootout has served as an early-season showcase of Kansas City area high school basketball.

For Bishop Miege’s boys and girls last weekend, it served as a chance to show out.

During back-to-back games against Lee’s Summit North on Dec. 15 at Avila University, the four-time reigning Class 4A, Division-I state champion girls and two-time reigning state champion boys looked capable of rolling to state titles again.

The Stags girls turned up the pressure and coasted to a 71-35 victory, while the boys took control at the start and won 76-51 in a pair of meetings with the Broncos.

“We just did a lot of things well today, offensively and defensively,” Miege girls coach Terry English said. “It was our best game of the year, for sure.”

Miege is breaking in two freshmen under the basket — 6-foot-2 Payton Verhulst and 6-1 Faith Hawthorne — but the Stags have several quick veteran guards, Courtney Harms and twins Jordynn and Johnni Gonzalez, surrounding them.

Harms scored a team-best 16 points with four steals, while Johnni Gonzalez added with 14 points and six steals in the victory.

Miege’s seasoned backcourt trio spearheaded a defense that produced 32 turnovers, many of them before LS North managed to get past half-court.

The Stags forced 12 of those turnovers in the second quarter, helping fuel a 20-2 run that led to a 45-26 halftime lead. Harms also hit two three-pointers during that stretch.

“Courtney had a good scoring game today,” English said. “She’s a good shooter, but she struggled a lot at times. Tonight, she was relaxed and did some good shooting for us from the outside.”

Verhulst and Hawthorne also found shots inside against LS North’s 6-5 senior center Aiyana Johnson.

Verhulst just missed a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds and Hawthorne finished with 12 points, but English said it’s the veteran guards who make the Stags go right now.

“They handle the ball the most and they get it to the right people,” English said. “They did a great job getting the ball to people who are open and we took good shots tonight.”

Miege’s boys relied on their usual weapons during another easy victory, most notably the impressive talent of 6-9 junior forward Jeremiah Robinson-Earl.

With Wake Forest head coach and former Kansas star Danny Manning watching from the sideline, Robinson-Earl racked up 21 points on 10-for-14 shooting, grabbed six rebounds and dished out seven assists.

Still, the bigger star for the Stags on this night was 6-2 senior guard Ezekiel Lopes — who scored a game-high 22 points on 7-for-9 shooting, including a 4-for-6 performance from three-point range.

Lopes scored 16 of those points during the second half as Miege pulled away.

“EZ hit as many big shots as anyone for us,” coach Rick Zych said. “We know he can shoot the ball and got him some open looks from our penetration on the inside, and he hit them.”

The Stags boys and girls weren’t the only Johnson County teams in the two-day event, formerly known as the Hy-Vee Shootout.

Shawnee Mission East’s girls started it off with a 55-34 loss against St. Teresa’s Academy, and the first day ended with St. Thomas Aquinas falling to Blue Springs South 51-45.

Blue Valley Northwest, the defending Class 6A boys state champion, lost against reigning Missouri Class 5 runner-up Lee’s Summit West 57-52 during the second day’s marquee matchup.

Earlier Saturday, Blue Valley lost 55-52 against Oak Park in overtime, Blue Valley North beat Park Hill 38-37 in overtime, and St. James Academy lost 59-37 to Grandview.

This story was originally published December 18, 2017 at 6:30 AM with the headline "Bishop Miege basketball teams show off in shootout."