Topeka West's Marque Wilkerson reaches for a basket during Thursday nights game against Shawnee Mission North /Photo by Rex Wolf TSNBy RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Topeka West's two-game mini-skid started with Highland Park and it also ended with the Scots.
Topeka West dropped a 57-54 overtime decision at Highland Park in its final game leading into the Topeka Invitational Tournament and then dropped a 60-59 decision to Shawnee Mission North on Thursday, prompting veteran West coach Rick Bloomquist to promise some changes for Friday's consolation game against the Scots.
The moves paid off, with the 7-2 Chargers building a 17-point lead and surviving a furious fourth-quarter rally by the 3-5 Scots to take a 67-57 victory in Topeka High's auxiliary gym and advance to Saturday's 4:30 p.m. fifth-place game against Hayden.
"They're good kids. There's no knuckleheads out there, there's no head cases on this team and and they were as embarrassed with themselves last night as everybody else was and they wanted to change,'' Bloomquist said.
"I was kind of anxious to see how they'd react because this is a tough game to play, not only physically because of Highland Park and the athleticism they have, but because of where we were and what gym we were in. There's nothing good about this (consolation) game at all, but we played extrordinarily well for the circumstances.''
Topeka West got big games from its senior leaders, with Marque Wilkerson scoring a game-high 22 points and Trevion Alexander adding 17, but the Chargers, who played without injured junior standout Elijah Brooks, also got key contributions from several other players.
Junior Zander Putthoff bounced back from a scoreless night Thursday to score 12 points on 4 3-pointers while sophomore Sincere Austin scored 6 points in his first varsity start and sophomore Carmelo Foy got his first taste of varsity action and scored the final bucket of the first half to give the Chargers a 29-19 advantage.
West went on to lead by 17 points (42-25) in the third quarter and took a 48-32 lead into the fourth quarter before holding off the Scots the rest of the way.
Highland Park, which got 19 points and 5 3-pointers from junior Juan'Tario Roberts and 17 points from senior CJ Powell, battled back to get as close as 5 points with 2:08 remaining and was still within 6 with 34 seconds left before senior Justus Lowery and Austin both hit two free throws over the final 16.2 seconds to clinch the victory.
Highland Park, which dropped a 1-point decision to Wichita Southeast in the first round, fell behind for the second straight game before coming up short after rallying in the final quarter.
"That's kind of been our recent history thus far, come alive a little bit late after a quarter or a half of kind of sleepwalking,'' Scots coach Michael Williams said. "But it just comes down to urgency. Obviously, the urgency kicks in when you're on the brink of losing late and you know you've got to give it your all to get back into it, but we've got to find ways to start games like that.''
Highland Park will face Topeka High, a 48-45 overtime loser to Hayden, in Saturday's seventh-place game at 2 p.m. in High's auxiliary gym. That game will be followed by the West-Hayden fifth-place game.
TOPEKA WEST 67, HIGHLAND PARK 57
Highland Park 7 12 13 25 -- 57
Topeka West 10 19 19 19 -- 67
Highland Park (3-5) -- Peppers 3 0-0 7, Powell 8 1-1 17, Daniels 1 1-1 3, Prosper 1 0-0 2, Roberts 7 0-0 19, Simms 0 0-0 0, Kingcannon 3 2-3 9, Adams 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23 4-5 57.
Topeka West (7-2) -- Wilkerson 9 4-6 22, Austin 1 4-5 6, T. Alexander 8 1-2 17, X. Alexander 2 0-0 6, Putthoff 4 0-0 12, Foy 1 0-0 2, Lowery 0 2-2 2. Totals 25 11-15 67.
3-point goals -- Highland Park 7 (Roberts 5, Peppers, Kingcannon), Topeka West 6 (Putthoff 4, X. Alexander 2). Total fouls -- Highland Park 18, Topeka West 13. Fouled out -- none.
