Topeka West's Elijah Brooks makes a dunk against De Soto during the 5A State semi-finals in Emporia. (Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN)
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
EMPORIA -- It wasn't easy, and very little has been in Rick Bloomquist's nine-year rebuilding project with Topeka West basketball.
But what the Chargers lacked in artistic flair in Friday's Class 5A state boys semifinal against De Soto they made up for with pure grittiness, pulling out a 61-57 victory at White Auditorium to advance to the boys state championship game for the third time in school history.
"It was gut ball,'' Bloomquist said after the Chargers improved to 21-2 with their 15th straight victory. "It wasn't a basketball game, it was a gut ball game. It's one of those deals where they may question what we do in practice, but they figure it out after awhile and appreciate a little gut ball every once in a while.
"It's a situation where we think we have them prepared, we really do. I've got a great coaching staff, I've got great support, I've got kids that believe in what we're doing and it was just flat gut ball tonight.''
Topeka West, which advanced to Saturday's 6 p.m. championship game against No. 1 seed Maize, looked to be in trouble early on, with De Soto (19-4) using a 9-0 run to to open up a 13-4 advantage at the 4:07 mark of the opening quarter and leading by 11 twice before West junior Elijah Brooks canned a 3-pointer to get the Chargers within 8 (25-17) at the end of the quarter despite six first-quarter 3-pointers by the Wildcats.
Broooks and senior Trevion Alexander, who combined for 24 points and 12 rebounds in the first half, took the Chargers on their backs in the second quarter, with West outscoring the Wildcats 15-6 to take a slim 32-31 lead at the half.
Topeka West opened up a 38-33 advantage at the 6:13 mark of the third quarter on a 3-point play from senior Marque Wilkerson, but that would be the biggest lead by either team the rest of the night.
The game was deadlocked at 39 entering the fourth period and there was another tie and six lead changes down the stretch before sophomore Sincere Austin nailed a 3-pointer from the corner with 2:35 remaining to snap a 50-50 tie and put the Chargers ahead to stay.
"Coach told me to just shoot the ball,'' Austin said. "He told me to shoot it with confidence.''
De Soto got within a point three times over the last 1:26, the last time at 58-57 with 35 seconds remaining, but Wilkerson and Alexander hit three throws for West before Austin connected on the second of two free throws with 6.4 seconds left to clinch the victory.
"I just had to do it for my team,'' Austin said. "I wanted to go to the championship. My team trusted me, they believed in me.''
Brooks, who suffered a knee injury in the fourth quarter of West's 52-49 quarterfinal win at Hays, turned in a huge 24-point, 13-rebound performance before fouling out with 48.5 seconds left while Alexander added 17 points and 8 rebounds and Austin had 9 points, including a pair of 3-pointers.
After their scorching start from 3-point range De Soto canned just two treys the rest of the night.
Wyatt Noll, a 6-foot-6 senior, led De Soto with 15 points while junior Tyler Schultze hit 3 of 5 3-pointers and finished with 11 points.
Nate Barnhart, a 7-foot senior who is headed to Wyoming, added 9 points and 6 rebounds.
With Friday's win Topeka West is now one victory way from West's first-ever boys state championship. The Chargers will face a Maize team that rolled to a 74-48 win over Kansas City-Washington in the first semifinal.
"We're going to play to win,'' Bloomquist said. "As soon as we walk out of this (locker room) door right here, the fun's over and we're going to get serious again.''
MAIZE BOYS 74, KANSAS CITY-WASHINGTON 48
Top seed Maize, which improved to 22-2, outscored Kansas City-Washington 40-20 over the middle two quarters to roll to the championship game with a 74-48 win in Friday's first semifinal.
The Eagles led by just a 14-11 count at the end of the first quarter, but outscored the 10-5 Wildcats 16-8 in the second quarter to open up a 30-19 halftime advantage and then hit Washington with a 24-12 third-quarter lick to put the game out of reach.
Maize led by as many as 27 points in the third quarter and by 33 in the fourth.
Five players cracked double figures for the Eagles, led by senior Jacob Hanna with 17 points. Senior Winston Bing added 15 on 5 3-pointers while senior Keegan Harrod had 14 and sophomore Avery Johnson and junior Jaden Gustafson 10 apiece as Maize shot 51.9 percent from the field and went 9 of 22 from 3-point range.
Hanna also grabbed a game-high 9 rebounds while Gustafson had 7 boards.
Senior Trayon Grant led Washington with 16 points while senior Kyren Angelo added 11 and junior Trayvon Foster 10 points.
Maize will be making its first-ever appearance in the state championship game.
TOPEKA WEST 61, DE SOTO 57
De Soto 25 6 8 18 -- 57
Topeka West 17 15 7 22 -- 61
DeSoto (19-4) -- T. Schultz 4-7 0-0 11, Miller 3-7 0-0 8, Barnhart 4-9 1-1 9, Noll 6-15 3-11 15, Henderson 2-5 1-2 6, Priddy 1-1 0-0 3, E. Schultze 0-2 0-0 0, Ogden 2-4 0-0 5. Totals 22-50 5-14 57.
Topeka West (21-2) -- Wilkerson 2-8 2-3 6, Brooks 10-16 3-6 24, Austin 3-7 1-2 9, T. Alexander 5-13 7-11 17, Putthoff 1-4 2-2 5, Peterson 0-0 0-0 0, X. Alexander 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 21-49 15-24 61.
3-point goals -- De Soto 8-14 (T. Schultz 3-5, Miller 2-3, Henderson 1-2, Priddy 1-1, Ogden 1-2, Barnhart 0-1), Topeka West 4-16 (Austin 2-5, Brooks 1-2, Putthoff 1-4, Wilkerson 0-2, T. Alexander 0-2, X. Alexander 0-1). Total fouls -- De Soto 19, Topeka West 12. Fouled out -- Brooks.
MAIZE BOYS 74, KANSAS CITY-WASHINGTON 48
Washington 11 8 12 17 -- 48
Maize 14 16 24 20 -- 74
Kansas City-Washington (10-5) -- Foster 2-6 6-10 10, Angelo 5-14 1-1 11, Grant 5-14 5-6 16, Stacker Jr. 1-2 0-2 2, Milton Jr. 1-1 0-0 2, Hunter Jr. 0-0 0-0 0, Johnson 3-9 0-0 7, Dupree III 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-46 12-19 48.
Maize (22-2) -- Grill 0-1 2-2 2, Johnson 4-10 0-2 10, Hanna 8-13 0-0 17, Bing 5-7 0-0 15, Gustafson 3-4 4-4 10, Harrod 5-9 3-5 14, Stephens 1-1 0-0 2, Belcher 1-5 0-0 2, Stover 0-0 0-0 0, Reyes 0-1 0-0 0, Schieffer 0-1 0-0 0, Schmidt 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 28-54 9-13 74.
3-point goals -- Kansas City-Washington 2-16 (Grant 1-4, Johnson 1-3, Angelo 0-8, Stacker Jr. 0-1), Maize 9-22 (Bing 5-7, Johnson 2-4, Hanna 1-2, Harrod 1-4, Belcher 0-2, Reyes 0-1, Schieffer 0-1, Schmidt 0-1). Total fouls -- Kansas City-Washington 12, Maize 16. Fouled out -- none.
