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.''
Topeka West was never able to completely shake Hayden, which fell to 3-7, but the Chargers never trailed after scoring the final 7 points of the opening quarter to take a 16-9 lead.
West went on to lead 29-22 at the half and 52-44 through three quarters, but Hayden was within 4 points late in the third quarter after sophomore Joe Otting converted a 3-point play.
Hayden got within 3 (55-52) with six minutes left after a 3-pointer from junior Trent Duffey and was within 4 (66-62) after senior Trey Pivarnik's 5th 3-pointer of the game with 35.2 seconds left, but sophomore Xavier Alexander converted 3 of 4 free throws over the final 17 seconds to close out the West win.
"Hayden will never beat themselves with that coaching staff they have,'' Bloomquist said. "They do a good job, their kids are well-disciplined and (know) what they need to do and we kind of fell into that trap.''
Senior Marque Wilkerson paced Topeka West with a game-high 25 points and also grabbed 7 rebound while senior Trevion Alexander added 13 points and X. Alexander 10.
Pivarnik led Hayden with 20 points, including his first 5 3-pointers of the season, and also grabbed 8 rebounds while sophomore Jake Muller added 15 points, Otting 12 points and 7 rebounds and senior Geivonnii Williams 10 points.
"I didn't think when (West) hit some big shots that we had any letdown,'' Hayden coach Torrey Head said. "I thought our guys continued to attack, which I wanted to do. You didn't want to get in a racehorse game with them because they've got a lot of firepower, but I thought our guys battled them pretty good.''
TOPEKA WEST 69, HAYDEN 62
Hayden 9 13 22 18 -- 62
Topeka West 16 13 23 17 -- 69
Hayden (3-7) -- Williams 3-9 3-4 10, Muller 5-9 2-2 15, Duffey 2-4 0-0 5, Pivarnik 7-10 1-2 20, Otting 3-4 6-7 12, Gorman 0-1 0-0 0, Rice 0-1 0-0 0, Bartlett 0-0 0-0 0, Rochford 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-38 12-15 62.
Topeka West (8-2) -- Wilkerson 9-13 6-8 25, Austin 3-7 0-0 7, T. Alexander 5-13 0-0 13, X. Alexander 3-8 3-4 10, Putthoff 2-6 1-2 7, Foy 2-3 2-2 7, Lowery 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-50 12-16 69.
3-point goals -- Hayden 10 (Pivarnik 5, Muller 3, Williams, Duffey), Topeka West 9 (T. Alexander 3, Putthoff 2, X. Alexander, Wilkerson, Austin, Foy). Total fouls -- Hayden 17, Topeka West 14. Fouled out -- Wilkerson.
