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By RICK PETERSON

TopSports.news

Topeka West senior Marque Wilkerson helped open the door for Seaman in Saturday's Class 5A boys sub-state championship game by missing his first three free throw attempts and four of his first five.

But the Charger point guard slammed the door on the Vikings with 12.6 seconds remaining, hitting a pair of charites to clinch a 55-52 win that earned West a spot in the Class 5A state quarterfinals.

Topeka West's Marque Wilkerson slams the door on the Vikings with 12.6 seconds remaining, hitting a pair of charities to clinch a 55-52 win that earned West a spot in the Class 5A state quarterfinals. (Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN)

"I thought, "These have got to count. I haven't hit none all game, so these have to count. I've got to knock them down,'' Wilkerson said after the Chargers earned their first trip to state since 2010 with their 13th straight victory.

Topeka West, now 19-2, will travel to Hays on Tuesday for a 6 p.m. contest, with the Indians improving to 22-0 with a 61-48 win over Salina South.

Topeka West with its sub-state championship trophy after Saturday's 55-52 win over Seaman. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]

After trailing 4-0 and 6-5 out of the gate, Topeka West took the lead for good on a bucket from senior Trevion Alexander at the 2:54 mark of the opening quarter.

But Seaman, which saw its eight-game winning streak come to an end, refused to go away.

The Vikings, who finished 13-9, got within 2 points in the second quarter after trailing 14-8 at the end of the first and Seaman was still within 6 (25-19) at the half.

Topeka West looked to be on the verge of putting the game away in the third quarter when the Chargers built their lead to 12 on three occasions but junior Ty Henry, who had a huge second half, ended the period with a hoop to get the Vikings within 10 and Seaman continued to rally in the fourth quarter.

Seaman eventually cut West's lead to 3 points (48-45) when Henry scored at the 1:39 mark and the Vikings cut their deficit to 52-50 on a Mateo Hyman bucket before Charger junior Elijah Brooks hit one of two free throws with 30 seconds remaining and Wilkerson closed out the win with his clutch charities.

Henry capped a 22-point night with a late hoop, but West didn't even have to inbound the ball to clinch their biggest win in recent memory.

"All we've got to do is play,'' said Wilkerson, who finished with 13 points. "To start off that first half we weren't moving our feet at all and we playing real sluggish and then it was like, 'We can't lose this game. We all want to go to state and we want a championship, we've got to get right.' ''

Brooks turned in an outstanding performance for the Chargers, finishing with a double-double of 22 points and 12 rebounds while going 9 of 13 from the field.

"That's kind of my second mindset behind scoring and I realized I could score off rebounds, too, so I just tried to go in there and box and when I got the rebound on defense leak out and get my guys an open shot,'' Brooks said.

And even though the win wasn't secure until the closing seconds, Brooks was proud that his team was able to get the job done.

"This is really big because as a group we haven't done this before and it's new to us,'' Brooks said. "We're excited about it and we're happy that we actually did it.''

Bloomquist said the fact that Seaman took the game down to the wire was not a surprise to him.

"I'm going to tell you, I was nervous after the buzzer went off after the Newton game when we found out we had to play Seaman,'' Bloomquist said. "That's when I got nervous. It wasn't just today because I knew exactly what we were going to get from a Craig Cox-coached basketball team and from the Seaman basketball kids.

"I  knew what I was going to get. It wasn't going to be a blowout. What Craig did, what Seaman did, did not surprise me one bit.''

Alexander added 12 points and 7 rebounds for West while junior Zander Putthoff had 8 points, all in the first half.

Junior Casen Stallbaumer added 9 points for Seaman before fouling out with 1:17 left to play.

"We didn't shoot well enough or as good as we would have liked to have to get the victory, but I was really proud of our defensive effort,'' Cox said. "I felt like coming in that we needed it to be in the 50s to have the best chance to win, and we did that with some outstanding defense.

"Unfortunately, they rebounded the ball and hurt us a little bit in the second half with that.''

The Chargers will be facing a Hays team that advanced to the 5A semifinals a year ago before the tournament ended early due to COVID-19.

West is back in the state tournament for the first time since finishing second to Bishop Miege in 2010 and the Chargers will be making their first state appearance under Bloomquist.

TOPEKA WEST BOYS 55, SEAMAN 52

Seaman 8 11 13 20 -- 52

Topeka West 14 11 17 13 -- 55

Seaman (13-9) -- Hyman 3-8 1-1 7, Henry 8-14 22, Bonner 2-10 1-2 6, Stallbaumer 4-6 0-0 9, Davis 2-6 2-2 6, Brewer 0-0 0-0 0, Kobuszewski 1-3 0-1 2, Gormley 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-47 8-10 52.

Topeka West (19-2) -- Wilkerson 5-9 3-7 13, Brooks 9-13 4-9 22, Austin 0-5 0-0 0, T. Alexander 3-9 5-6 12, Putthoff 3-6 0-0 8, Peterson 0-0 0-0 0, X. Alexander 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 8-37 7-12 27.

3-point goals -- Seaman 4 (Henry 2, Bonner, Stallbaumer) Topeka West 3 (Putthoff 2, T. Alexander). Total fouls -- Seaman 21, Topeka West 12. Fouled out -- Stallbuamer.