Dawgs Fall To Ellinwood At State

 WICHITA – For the second straight season, Rossville once again found itself with an opportunity to advance within only two victories of a state title. 

Senior Jakoby McDonnell led Rossville with 14 points in Wednesday's Class 2A quarterfinal loss to Berean Academy. [File photo/TSN]

Unfortunately for the Bulldawgs, the 2026 season ended in the same place it did in 2025.

Rossville’s 17-8 season concluded in the Class 2A boys state quarterfinals once again on Wednesday as Berean Academy took home a 55-38 victory at Friends University. 

As a team, the Bulldawgs shot 40 percent from the field, but their offense struggled to reach the levels it had during the regular season.

Berean (23-2) zeroed in on Rossville senior standout Jack Donovan, allowing him little space and even fewer scoring opportunities. All in all, the Warriors held Donovan scoreless on only eight shot attempts throughout the quarterfinal contest.   

“It’s hard to beat a good team that talk and they did both, kudos to them,” Rossville coach Brandon McDonnell said. “We didn’t make an adjustment on our side and we kind of got flustered. Once you get flustered, it’s human nature; it’s kind of hard to dig yourself out of a hole.” 

The defensive slugfest got going immediately, as the Bulldawgs and Warriors refused to give up an inch of space. However, thanks to a last-second shot at the buzzer from Wyatt Friesen, the Warriors took a 9-7 lead into the second quarter. 

Turnovers became a nagging problem for Rossville over the next eight-minute period. Carelessness and the Warriors’ relentless defense culminated in seven giveaways by the Bulldawgs, directly leading to seven points from those turnovers. They finished the half with nine giveaways and ended the game with 11 total. 

McDonnell said the turnover issues were as much a credit to the Warriors’ defense as they were to careless ball security from the Bulldawgs.  

“This is state, the butterflies are different, the thought process is different, the environment is different,” McDonnell said. “When you mix all that together, you're going to have some slippage. And our problem is that we had too much of the slippage, and then they converted off of it.”   

And Rossville’s struggles on the offensive side were no better, ending the second quarter with only five points with a 22.2 shooting percentage. However, Berean couldn’t take full advantage as it dealt with its own offensive struggles, but still took a 20-12 advantage into the locker room.

Even though both teams shot under 30 percent in the first half, the Warriors had far more offensive opportunities, outshooting the Bulldawgs by 10 attempts.  

Out of halftime, both teams found a better offensive rhythm. Rossville finished the third quarter with a much improved 67.7% mark from the floor, but Berean wasn’t far behind, shooting over 50%.

In addition, the Warriors inflicted greater damage thanks to multiple made 3s and seven made free throws. That extended their lead to double-digits with a 35-24 advantage with one quarter to go. 

Over the final eight minutes, the Bulldawgs struggled to find a way back into the affair. The Warriors kept them at a distance and closed things out to advance to Friday night’s semifinals. 

Jakoby McDonnell led the Bulldawgs with 14 points to go along with three rebounds and assists. Cameron Miller also finished in double figures with 10 points.

Baseball Starts March 23

 

Baseball @ Chapman Jamboree

Monday, March 23·3:30 – 8:30pm

Chapman High School, 400 W 4th St, Chapman, KS 67431, USA

Boys Basketball To State

 

Rossville boys earn return trip to Class 2A state tournament with 60-49 win over KCC

 Created: 07 March 2026

By TODD FERTIG

TopSports.news

The Rossville boys earned a second straight trip to the state tournament by blitzing Kansas City Christian with defense and pace Saturday, winning the sub-state final at Mission Valley, 60-49.

Rossville senior Jakoby McDonnell hoists the Class 2A sub-state trophy after Saturday's 60-49 win over Kansas City Christian. [Photo by Todd Fertig]

Rossville boys basketball poses for a team picture after earning a second straight trip to the Class 2A state tournament Saturday night. [Photo by Todd Fertig/TSN]

A few seasons ago, Rossville couldn’t have been much further from a tournament team. Now this Bulldawg team will be the seventh seed in the Class 2A field, drawing a match with Berean Academy at 7:30 p.m. next Wednesday in Emporia.

Rossville coach Brandon McDonnell said getting back to state will quiet the doubters.

“There’s a stigma that this might have been a fluke last year,” McDonnell said. “You gotta repeat it in order for it not to be that fluke. Ok, so be it. We’re not afraid of that competition.

“I want the boys to know that 10 years ago, we weren’t even in this conversation. We were in the conversation three years ago. And people didn’t expect that. Then, the year after that, we won it. Well, don’t make it a fluke. Go get it again. And now we’re here.”

The Bulldawgs came out with a fullcourt press that the Panthers did not figure out until late in the third period. The strategy helped produce a 32-8 run that spanned nearly all of the second period and more than half the third period. The Panthers led 10-8 early in the second period, but when the onslaught ended, they trailed 40-18.

McDonnell said he spent time watching film of Kansas City Christian. But he admitted the press wasn’t a product of the scouting report.

“That wasn’t the film part of it,” McDonnell said. “It was that we were getting bored, sitting back waiting for things to develop and then we get antsy and then start to do something like foul when we don’t need to. So, I said to get that antsy-ness out, let’s go ahead and get into our press, let’s accelerate our feet, accelerate our hands, accelerate our minds. Let’s see if we can get something out of it. And lo and behold, we had three stops right off the jump and they had to call a timeout.

“Usually I don’t keep them in (the press) for that long, but it was working. And I don’t fix it if it’s not broke. So, we stayed in it, and it worked out for us in the end.”

McDonnell’s son, Jakoby McDonnell, said the pressure counteracted the Panthers’ plan to slow the pace.

“They were trying to walk the ball up the court and slow us down,” the coach’s son said. “We’re more of a fast-paced team. We feed off each other’s energy. If one of us is getting steals, getting touches, we’ll all feed off of him.”

Jakoby McDonnell spearheaded the press and earned several fastbreak opportunities off turnovers. Late in the game, he also drew a number of fouls from the desperate Panther defense. In the second half, he deposited nine free throws to hold off a Kansas City Christian comeback bid. The point guard finished with 21 points to lead the Bulldawgs.

“For this particular (game), my son’s a senior,” Coach McDonnell said.” It was marvelous seeing him play and see what he does well and see him get tired and see him still trying to navigate. As a dad, that was phenomenal.

“As a coach, seeing every single one of (the Bulldawgs) going out there and knowing what the goal was…this is my family away from my family. So, seeing them play and take home what’s rightfully theirs, it’s amazing.”

Jack Donovan added 15 points, followed by Cameron Miller’s 13 and Connor Bush’s eight for the Bulldawgs.

The sub-state finals at Mission Valley were played without a shot clock. Once Rossville built a 21-point lead in the fourth period, one would have expected the Bulldawgs to slow things down and spread the floor to milk the clock. But that wasn’t the route they chose.

“One thing that we knew was gonna be a little nerve-wracking was no shot clock,” Coach McDonnell said.” Slowing down the pace is something that we don’t like to do, but we have to make adjustments. There are times when they don’t listen to me. But I’ve never tried to take them away from creativity. Sometimes they see a seam and they want to go. And I’ve got to deal with what comes along with that.

“But you know, at the end of the day, we just want to be the best version of ourselves. And when we come out on the ‘W’ side, that’s always a good thing.”

Jakoby McDonnell said the returners from last year state tournament team will benefit from the experience.

“Definitely don’t underestimate the competition. (The opponent) is there to do the same thing that you’re there to do, bring home a state title. So just go out there and give it your all,” the coach’s son said. “This feels great. Even though we lost a few key pieces coming into this year, we still had the hard work and dedication to everything to repeat and go back.”

Maggie Sanders Signs To Play For Barton Juco

  Maggie Sanders will play softball next year at Barton Co. Juco

State 2A Boy's BB Tournament Bracket

 [2] Berean Academy (22-2)

Wed, 3/11 @ Friends University - 4:00 PM

[7] Rossville HS (17-7)

2A State Girl's Basketball Tournament Bracket

[1] Ellinwood HS (25-1)

Tue, 3/10 @ Tony's Pizza Event Center - 2:00 PM

[8] Rossville HS (15-10)

RHS Boys Defeat KCC To Win Sub-State

(Click on image to enlarge)

Kansas City Christian 8   5 14 22 -- 49
Rossville                     8 16 21 15 -- 60

Rossville (17-7) Scoring:

McDonnell  6-12 9-12 21
Donovan     5-9   4-4   15
Bush           3-6   2-2     8
Miller           5-9   2-6   13
Johnson      0-1   1-2     3
Lewis          0-1    0-0    1
Horgan       0-2    0-0     0 

Totals       19-40 18-26 60.

Rossville Girls Win Sub-State

Rossville       13 23 23 12 -- 71
KC Christian 12   9   9 19 -- 49

Rossville Scoring: 

Bunck        2 (2) 0-0   6
Dick           8 (3) 4-4 23
M. Sanders        0-0   2
Burdiek      7 (1) 7-7 22
B. Miller     5 (3) 3-4 16
T. Miller           1 0-0   2

Totals    24 (9) 14-15 71.

Donovan In TopSportsNews

 JACK DONOVAN, Rossville

A senior boys basketball player, Donovan scored 47 points on Friday as Rossville opened postseason with a 90-28 Class 2A sub-state home quarterfinal victory over McLouth. A returning All-Shawnee County pick, Donovan hit 17 of 28 shots on the night with nine 3-pointers while also going 4 of 4 at the free throw line and topping the 40-point mark for the second time this season.

Lady Dawgs In Sub-State Final Mar 6

Rossville will be playing its sub-state championship game at Mission Valley on Friday, Feb. 6. The Bulldawgs will take on No. 4 Maur Hill-Mount Academy (18-7). The Ravens defeated Horton 43-42. 

Dawg Win in TopSportsNews

 From TopSportsNews

Rossville boys advance to 2A sub-state final, taking down Maur Hill-Mt. Academy
 Created: 04 March 2026

By VINCE LOVERGINE

TopSports.news

The Rossville Bulldawgs said before the season that they wanted to make it back to the Class 2A state tournament after getting a taste of it last season.

 

Rossville senior Cameron Miller (11) scored a game-high 24 points in the Bulldwags' 67-51 sub-state win over Maur Hill-Mt. Academy. [File photo/TSN]

 They’re one step closer to that goal fending off the Ravens Wednesday night in a sub-state semifinal, 67-51.

“Play Rossville basketball man,,'' Bulldawg coach Brandon McDonnell said. "Whether it’s pretty or ugly, it’s about surviving and advancing. As long as we can stay playing together and not bicker at each other too much … sometimes we have that slippage and that’s human nature. You’re going to get mad at each other every once and awhile and that can’t happen for too long. It happened a little bit tonight and then they regrouped.

 

“We haven’t been in this conversation for so long as a program. Of course, if we made it last year we want to go right back because we want to let people know it wasn’t a fluke. We got one more game and when we win that, let’s go to state.''

For nearly three minutes with the game was tied at 3-3 before Rossville gained its first lead of the game at 9-8 after senior Cameron Miller made two free-throws.

The Bulldawgs went on a 12-2 run to lead by 11 (21-10), forcing Maur Hill-Mt. Academy into a timeout with 1:04 left in the first quarter. Rossville led 23-14 after one quarter.

Then the Bulldawgs couldn’t miss from beyond the arc, with 12 of ther 13 points in the quarter off 3-pointers, two from Miller and one apiece from Jack Donovan and Conner Bush.

The Bulldawgs led 35-22 after Miller’s second triple and took a 36-23 lead into the break.

“What we try to tell the fellas is the game has to settle eventually,'' McDonell said. "You still got the butterflies, trying to figure out what defense they’re in, what seams we can penetrate and just getting into a flow.

“Sometimes for us it takes until the second quarter to get into that flow and that’s what happened tonight.”

After four quick points to begin the third quarter, including a two-hand slam from Miller in transition, Donovan and Bush would knock down 3-pointers and Rossville would build a 19-point lead.

Rossville led 52-40 at the end of three quarters. Bush had nine points and Donovan finished with 16 points.

“Whenever everyone is scoring the same amount, it means we’re sharing the ball and getting open looks as much as we can, but sometimes it’s going to be lopsided but hey, a win is a win,” said Miller, who finished with a game-high 24 points. 

The Ravens got it down to nine (52-43), its first time trailing under 10 points since the end of the first quarter. But the Bulldawgs would not let it go any further than that.

Jakoby McDonnell missed an and-one opportunity but Miller grabbed the miss and put it back home for two, putting Rossville back up 12 (58-46).

“That moment (the dunk) changes the momentum, gets the crowd into it, gets us fired up and then we’re good from there,” Miller said. 

Despite that lead evaporating a little bit, McDonnell said that shows the confidence the kids have in not letting the game get away from them.

“We’ve been down 20 and came back within one point. It’s not about, ‘Oh, they’re coming back we’re going to lose, it’s more of you’ve been here before and learn how to play with the lead,’’ McDonnell said. “Sometimes we get trigger happy from three and I have to call out a play that results in us getting down hill.”

Rossville (16-7) will play Kansas City Christian (16-9) at 5 p.m. Saturday at Mission Valley.

KCC advanced with a 56-53 win over Jefferson County North.

ROSSVILLE 67, MAUR HILL-MT. ACADEMY 51

Maur Hill-Mt. Academy 14 9 17 11 – 51

Rossville                         23 13 16 15 – 67

Maur Hill Mt. Academy (16-9) – Raplinger 4 8-10 16, Korbelik 2 0-2 6, Campbell 3 0-0 8, Wurtz 5 1-1 12, Zimmerer 1 0-0 2, Wilson 2 1-2 5, Te Timoll 1 0-0 2.

Rossville (16-7) -- McDonell 6 1-3 13, Donovan 6 1-2 16, Bush 3 1-4 9, Miller 8 5-6 24, Lewis 1 1-2 3, Johnson 1 0-1 2

3-point goals -- Maur Hill Mt. Academy 5 (Campbell 2, Korbelik 2, Wurtz 1) Rossville 8 (Donovan 3, Miller 3, Bush 2). Total fouls -- Maur Hill Mt. Academy 13, Rossville 12. Fouled out -- none. Technical fouls -- none.

 

The Dawgs Advance wifh 67-51 win

 The Rossville boy's baskeball team will advance to the Sub-State title game on March  7 against the winner of the Jeff Co. North/Kansas City Christian game.  The Dawgs had an easy time defeating Maur Hill, Mount Academy 67-51. on the Rossville Court.

Rossville (16-7) 

McDonell    6 1-3 13
Donovan     6 1-2 16
Bush           3 1-4   9
Miller           8 5-6 24
Lewis          1 1-2   3
Johnson      1 0-1   2

Lady Dawgs Defeat KCC to Win Sub-State Semi

 No. 9 Rossville (13-10) defeated No. 1 Kansas City Christian (19-6) 71-49. The Lady Bulldawgs are playing their best basketball of the season right now. They’ve won 10 of their last 12 games. 

Against KCC, the Bulldawgs shot the lights out according to head coach Derek Dick. He told the Capital-Journal it was one of his team’s best performances of the season.

Rossville led 13-12 at the end of the first quarter. It opened the second period on an 11-2 run, which gave it all of the momentum needed to secure the win. 

First Sub-State Girls BB Game

Rossville           11 14 14 13 -- 52
Mission Valley 10    7 13   9 -- 39

Rossville scoring:

Bunck       2 (2) 0-0    6
E. Sanders     1 0-0   2
Dick          6 (2) 3-3 17
M. Sanders    0 2-2   2
Burdiek          4 4-4 12
B. Miller    4 (3) 2-4 13 

Totals 17 (7) 11-13 52.

321A Girls Wrestling State Championships

Russel captured the 321A Kansas State Wrestling Title
Rossville finished 10th of the 50+ teams.  Silver Lake was fifth,  St Marys was 48th and Riley Co 43rd.

Individual Honors for Rossville state qualifiers were:

100 Joanie Pottorf (30-18) place is unknown and scored 1.0 team points

105 Nora Mitchell (37-12) placed 2nd and scored 23.0 team points. 1st Place Match - Jentri Porter (Leoti Wichita County HS) 34-0 won by decision over Nora Mitchell (Rossville HS) 37-12 (Dec 8-3)

110 Aliahna Kepner (17-26) place is unknown and scored 2.0 team points. 

130 Ariana Moses-Prospere (23-23) place is unknown and scored 0.0 team points. 
 
145 Madelyn Wonnell (38-6) placed 3rd and scored 19.5 team points.  3rd Place Match - Madelyn Wonnell (Rossville HS) 38-6 won by fall over KayLynn Nicholson (Osage City HS) 32-7 (Fall 3:19)

Boys BB Second Round Of Sub-State

Rossville HS (15-6) will host Maur Hill-Mount Academy (16-8) for the second round of Sub-State at Rossville on Tueday March 4 at 6:00 PM.

Girls Sub-State Game #2 on March 3

Rossville Girls BB Team will play Kansas City Christian, first round winners over St. Marys, on March 3. 

RHS Boys Get First Round Win At Sub-State

Rossville 27 33 25  5 -- 90
McLouth   7  10   4  7 -- 28

Rossville Scoring: 

McDonnell        1 0-2   2
Donovan   17 (9) 4-4 47
Horgan             2 1-1   5
Bush                 1 0-0   2
Miller           9 (2) 1-1 21
Horak               2 1-1   5
Johnson           2 0-0   6
Martinek           1 0-1   2 

Totals      36 (11) 7-10 90.

Lady Dawgs Take First Sub-State Game

The Lady Dawgs picked up an easy first round win over  Mission  Valley 52-39 on Feb 27.

Glenda Ruth Bryant Passes Away

Glenda Ruth Bryant passed away peacefully on February 26, 2026, at the age of 90.

Glenda was born on May 12, 1935 in Winfield, KS the daughter of Glenn and Gladys Morgan.

She was a beloved retired school teacher, known for her dedication to educating children and her enduring passion for their well-being. Amongst many other teaching positions, Glenda spent the last years of her career at Fort Riley Elementary, following an early start in a one-room schoolhouse in Winfield, Kansas. Her commitment to her students did not wane after retirement, as she continued to nurture and support children throughout her life.

An active member of East Side Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, Glenda contributed significantly to her community. She participated in children's ministry and the women's group, and, along with her late husband Delbert, helped establish the beautiful prayer room at the church. Her faith was central to her life, and she found joy in studying the Word, sharing her love for God with others.

In addition to her devotion to education and faith, Glenda was a talented pianist and enjoyed crocheting in her spare time. Earlier in her life, she cherished gardening and homemaking, nurturing her family with love and care.

Glenda is survived by her daughters, Janine (Bryan) Gauntt of Topeka, Debby (Larry) Peterson of Topeka, step-daughter, Pam (Ron) Trevarton of Arkansas, step-son, Steve Bryant of Arkansas, her siblings, Victor Morgan and Helen McKenzie and 12 grandchildren, and more than twelve great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents, Glenn and Gladys Morgan, her step-son, Chris Bryant, and her husband Delbert Bryant.

Visitation will be held at East Side Baptist Church, 4425 SE 29th St., Topeka, KS on March 6, 2026, at 9:00 am, followed by the funeral service at 10:00 am.

Interment will follow in Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Berryton. A reception following the burial will take place at East Side Baptist Church and all are welcome to attend.

Memorial contributions in Glenda's memory may be made to the East Side Baptist Church, 4425 SE 29th St., Topeka, KS