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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Wichita Southeast entered the Topeka Invitational Tournament with a 2-5 record and left as the tournament champion.
The 5-5 Buffaloes rode a hot first half to their third straight victory in Saturday's tournament final, building a 17-point halftime advantage over Lansing and holding off the 7-3 Lions down the stretch.
Lansing, coached by former Highland Park coach Jason Jones, rallied after the break, getting back in the hunt with a 16-9 third quarter.
The Lions gave themselves to pull out the win with 23 points in the fourth quarter, but Southeast hit 14 of 19 free throws overall in the final period to hang on.
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Topeka West still has to be stinging from Thursday's 1-point first-round Topeka Invitational Tournament loss to Shawnee Mission North, a team that entered the tournament with just one win.
But after seeing their chances at the tournament championship go out the window, the 8-2 Chargers did the next best thing, winning back-to-back games, including Saturday's 69-62 win over Hayden, to post a fifth-place finish.
"We've got goals,'' Topeka West coach Rick Bloomquist said. "We talked about that and we want to continue. We want the second half of the season to be better than the first half.
"Somebody told me that to win in March you've sometimes got to lose in January and there's a lot of truth to that.''
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By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Highland Park's boys basketball team is still searching for the consistency the Scots will need to become a Class 5A contender this season, and that issue crept up again Saturday in the second half of the Scots' Topeka Invitational Tournament seventh-place game against Topeka High.
Fortunately for Highland Park, the Scots had played well enough in a 33-16 first half to give them enough of a margin to hold off the Trojans for a 54-43 victory in High's auxiliary gym.
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TopSports.news
Sophomore Kaeden Bonner and junior Ty Henry combined for 37 points as Seaman bounced back from a first-round loss in Valley Center's January Jam to take a 65-50 consolation win over the host Hornets Friday.
Bonner led the Vikings with 19 points and Henry added 18 as the Vikings evened their record at 4-4 while ending 9-2 Valley Center's nine-game winning streak.
Seaman, which opened its tournament bid with a 61-48 loss to Wichita Heights on Thursday, also got 10 points from junior Brody Gormley in the win.
Seaman led 30-27 at the half and outscored the Hornets 16-9 in the third quarter to open up some breathing room (46-36) and the Vikings continued to pull away in the fourth.
CAIR PARAVEL LATIN BOYS 74, BURLINGAME 65
Cair Paravel came through with arguably its biggest win of the season Friday night, going on the road to knock off Burlingame, 74-65.
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Hayden's girls basketball team turned in its biggest offensive night of the season, with nine players scoring and four cracking double figures in the Wildcats' 79-26 Centennial League romp at Highland Park.
Hayden, which improved to 5-4 overall and in the league, was led by junior Carly Stuke with 18 points, while senior Rhen Calhoon added 16, freshman Lauren Sandstrom 13 and junior Sandy Anguiano 10 points for the Wildcats.
The Wildcats jumped out to a 20-8 first-quarter advantage and took a commanding 49-14 lead to the locker room at the half. Hayden led 71-23 after three quarters and a running clock was used throughout the fourth.
Highland Park (0-8, 0-8), which has fought a numbers crunch throughout the season, got a team-high 12 points from junior Aisya Taylor.
WASHBURN RURAL GIRLS 58, EMPORIA 35
Washburn Rural's girls started a bit slow in Friday's home Centennial League contest against Emporia, but the Junior Blues took control with an 18-7 second quarter on the way to a 58-35 victory.
