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By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

With Highland Park waiting in the wings after a win in Friday's first semifinal, the quest for Topeka West was clear, to secure an all-city Topeka Invitational Tournament championship game for the first time in 21 seasons.

Junior Keimani Paul led a balanced Topeka West attack with 16 points in the Chargers' 71-59 Topeka Invitational semifinal victory over Olathe East. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

Senior Kamoni Ford scored 15 points with three 3-pointers in Friday's 71-59 Topeka Invitational semifinal win over Olathe East. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

And the Chargers went out and took care of their part with their sixth straight win, a 71-59 romp over Olathe East at Topeka High.

"We've been waiting for this one for a long time,'' West junior Keimani Paul said. "We've been wanting to play them (the Scots) for the last two years and we're hungry for this one. We're going to go get it.''

With the win Topeka West will put its 8-2 record on the line against the 10-0 Scots in a 2:30 p.m. championship game, the first city final since West topped Seaman in the 2004 championship game.

Olathe East (6-4) built early 4-0 and 7-3 leads before the Chargers rallied to take a 26-18 advantage at the end of the opening quarter and never trailed again.

"We went out knowing we wanted to win this game because we wanted to play HP and we saw that they just won, so we were hungry all through it,'' Paul said. 

West built its lead to 14 points (46-32) by the end of the first half and led by 18 early in the third quarter (50-32) and 62-45 after three quarters.

The Chargers went on to go in front by 20 points (69-49) with 5:10 remaining before Olathe East made up some ground in garbage time.

"The guys came out and they executed well,'' West coach Christian Ulsaker said. "The same thing I said yesterday against Lansing, when you take a way a team's favorite two options on offense it makes it very difficult for them offensively and I think our guys attacked the rim super hard.

"Even if we didn't finish at times they attacked the rim hard on offense and we were able to draw some fouls and finally knocked down the free throws compared to last night.''

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By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

Mikey Williams is usually a reliable free throw shooter, including a 90.9 percent average in the first city stats, which made his struggles at the line in Saturday's Topeka Invitational Tournament championship game a bit frustrating for the Highland Park senior star.

Highland Park senior Mikey Williams (middle) scored a game-high 15 points in Saturday's 44-41 win over Topeka West in the Topeka Invitational championship game en route to being named tourament MVP. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

Highland Park poses for a team picture after winning the 2025 Topeka Invitational championship Saturday at Topeka High. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

But Williams was able to get eight charities to fall in the fourth quarter, including five in the final 1:32, as the top-ranked and undefeated Scots held off city rival Topeka West 44-41 to claim the tournament championhip in the first all-city final in 21 seasons.

"Usually I'm a really good free throw shooter,'' Williams said. "I'm the guy they look to shoot free throws at the end of a game, but I don't know, maybe it was just fatigue from three games in a row. I think the fatigue just sort of settled in my legs, they were feeling heavy.

"Every time after I missed I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I need these to seal the game,' so I was super frustrated because I knew my team needed those in that moment, but I'm just glad we got the win.''

Williams was a big part of that win and the Scots' championship, being named the tournament most valuable player after scoring a game-high 15 points in the final as top-ranked (Class 5A) Highland Park improved to 11-0 on the season.

Highland Park struggled at times against the No. 7-ranked Chargers (8-3), but did the things it needed to do to get the win according to Scots coach Mike Williams.

"You can't be disappointed with that at all,'' said Williams, whose Scots played without senior starter Da'Mykel Hales due to illness. "In tournament play you're looking to advance and you get to the championhip game you're looking to win any way possible.

"And I felt like our guys did that, even when our offense wasn't as clean at times as it has been. Credit to teams having a good game plan, focusing in on things that they can take away from us and how they should play us and we responded. And I think when our offense kind of slowed our defense got stingy and we just take pride in it.''

Highland Park led the bulk of Saturday's game, but Topeka West refused to go away.

The Scots led 6-4 after a low-scoring opening quarter and 19-14 at the half before going up by a game-high 8 points (27-19) with 5:15 left in the third on a Williams bucket.

But the Chargers answered in a hurry, cutting their deficit to 29-28 at the end of the third and taking a brief 30-29 advantage at the 7:28 mark on a hoop from junior Keimani Paul.

That West lead only lasted about a minute, however, as Highland Park senior star Ja'Corey Robinson was fouled on a driving dunk and converted the 3-point play to give the Scots a 32-30 advantage.

Sophomore Joseph Kingcannon followed with a basket and Williams hit two free throws to put Hi Park up 36-30 with 4:54 remaining.

Topeka West clawed within a point twice, the final time on two Malakyah Duncan free throws with 9.6 seconds left, but Williams hit two charities at the other end to give Hi Park its final margin.

"The shots weren't falling for us, especially in the first half,'' West coach Christian Ulsaker said. "Now I'm sure that's what coach Williams would say as well, but we were missing bunnies early and then we just didn't make the right plays at the end. I think we need to play a little bit more tougher as when we're attacking the rim we can't get bumped out of our spots and we've got to finish at the rim.''

But Ulsaker was also proud of his team for the way it kept battling back.

"If you want to bring back up the Shawnee Heights game (a 74-45 loss), these boys were able to deal with adversity better,'' he said. "They didn't back down. A run happens and then they came back with a run of their own, which is very pleasing to see for sub-state and state material.''

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By Rick Peterson

TopSports.news

Silver Lake advanced to the championship games in both the girls and boys divisions of the Burlington Invitational with Friday semifinal wins.

Junior Dayne Johnson (2) scored 28 points Friday as Silver Lake advanced to the title game in the Burlington Invitational with a 97-88 triple-overtime win over Burlington. [File photo/TSN]

Junior Kailyn Hanni led Silver Lake with 22 points in Friday's 50-48 semifinal win over Girard in the Burlington Invitational. [File photo/TSN]

Silver Lake's boys needed three overtimes to outlast host Burlington 97-88 while the Lady Eagles edged Girard, 50-48.

Silver Lake and Burlington were stll deadlocked after two overtime periods before the Eagles outscored the Wildcats 13-4 in the third OT to close out the win.

Junior Dayne Johnson and senior Jared Johnson scord 28 points apiece to lead Silver Lake while senior Brody Deiter added 21 points.

Silver Lake and Girard's girls were close throughout before the Eagles eked out the two-point win.

Junior Kailyn Hanni led the Eagles with 22 points, followed by Jaylie Whitehead and Ella Bolan with 10 points each.

Silver Lake faced Labette County in Saturday's girls final while the Eagle boys faced Ottawa.

Ballard leads way with 20 as Rural boys advance to title game

Senior Kaden Ballard scored 20 points with four 3-pointers to lead four double-figure scorers for Washburn Rural Friday as the Junior Blues advanced to the championship game of the Bill Hanson Memorial Tournament at Pittsburg with a 64-58 semifinal win over Webster Groves, Mo.

Ballard was backed by senior Amare Jones with 14 points, junior Simon Rowley with 12 points and junior John Hoytal with 10.

Webster Groves led 19-15 at the end of the first quarter before Washburn Rural (8-2) used a 21-15 second quarter to take a 36-34 halftime lead.

Webster Groves regained the lead at 47-46 at the start of the fourth quarter but the Junior Blues closed out the game with an 18-11 fourth quarter to pull out the win.

Rural was scheduled to take on Owasso, Okla. for the championsip at 2:30 p.m.

Shawnee Heights roll to Viking Classic championship contest

Shawnee Heights' boys were ahead by just five points at the end of the third quarter Friday night before taking control over the final eight minutes for a 65-51 win over Ozark, Mo. in the semifinals of the Viking Classic at Shawnee Mission West.  

Senior Jaret Sanchez led the T-Birds with 20 points, followed by junior JaiMarion Cook with 16 points and junior Ontarius Emmot with 11.

Heights advanced to Saturday's championship game to face Blue Valley North.

Bulldawgs advance to tourney title game with 66-60 win

Rossville's boys advanced to Saturday's championship game in the Valley Falls Invitational with a 66-60 win over the Northeast Kansas Nighthawks.

Rossville got a game-high 28 points from junior Cameron Miller while senior Kameron Badura added 17 and junior Jack Donovan 14 for the Bulldawgs.

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