Adrians Top 5 Thursday Night Stars

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>With this being the only game Thursday night it was a packed crowd as Kansas high school basketball gets underway. To start the season these 2 teams did not disappoint giving us a nail-biter finish. What looked like it was going to be a runaway game for Maize south, Andover central clawed their way back into the game taking it down to the wire. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='231281' first='Amani' last='Lipscomb']- With most point guards usually show off their ability to shoot off the bounce because of how much they dribble but Amani has established herself as a catch-and-shoot guard that really spaces the floor. Lipscomb does a good job of handling the ball in crucial moments for her team. To no surprise, she has active hands when she's on the defensive end but what was most impressive was her ability to still be active even out of the zone they were running. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='192817' first='Hayden' last='Snodgrass']- Hayden was the difference maker for this game and will be for this team moving forward. She started out slow and really turned it on in the 2nd quarter all the way up until she fouled out in the 4th quarter. What got her rolling was when sprinted back to protect the rim after her turnover to block the lay up. Most players give up after the turnover or they end up fouling but she made a clean play on the ball. She runs the floor harder than anyone else out there most of the time. Her speed isn't everyone else's speed but her ability to sprint up and down the court to make a play put her in good situations. She has a good high arching on her catch and shoot 3, rebounds it well for a guard, converted some nice euro step finishes and gets to her pull-up jumper whenever she wants.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='94951' first='Maddi' last='Amekporfor']- There's no running away from Maddi on either end of the floor. She has a high IQ on the defensive end which allows her to be in the right places at the right time. She has active hands which get her a lot of steals on or off the ball and she showed she could beat people off the bounce and finish at the rim. Not being afraid of the contact she got to the free throw multiple times from making a simple rip-through drive to the rim. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='191470' first='Avery' last='Lowe']- Good luck scoring around the rim when [player_tooltip player_id='191470' first='Avery' last='Lowe'] is on the court. Lowe is an elite rim protector and shot blocker no matter who she is playing for or who is coming inside the paint. Not only did she handle her own inside the paint but she always had a couple of possessions where she put the ball on the floor in transition to create her own shot going coast to coast off a rebound.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='265120' first='Ava' last='Howie']- Ava had good post position on that low block Thursday night and used it to her advantage every chance she could. Howie kept getting to her jump hook when it was a 1on1 matchup and succeeding more often than not. Her go to move was 1 maybe 2 dribbles to the paint, right hand small jump hook over her left shoulder. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->