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.''
Paul led three double-figure scorers for Topeka West with 16 points while senior Kamoni Ford added 15 points with three 3-pointers and junior Jay'veon Traylor had 10 points with a pair of treys.
Three other Chargers added 8 points while West connected on nine 3-pointers as a team.
Senior Carter Gooding led Olathe East with a game-high 18 points but was the only Hawk in double figures.
The Hawks will face Lawrence in Saturday's third-place game at 1 p.m.
TOPEKA WEST 71, OLATHE EAST 59
Olathe East 18 14 13 14 -- 59
Topeka West 26 20 16 9 -- 71
Olathe East (6-4) – Mwenda 2-9 0-0 4, Gooding 6-7 5-11 18, Alhom 2-7 4-6 8, Keech 2-6 0-0 5, Weikal 3-5 1-2 9, Burton 3-3 0-1 6, Schuknecht 2-3 2-4 6, Konen 0-1 1-2 1, Washington 0-2 0-0 0, Emerson 1-2 0-0 2. Totals: 21-49 13-22 59.
Topeka West (8-2) – Ford 5-10 2-2 15, Duncan 2-3 2-2 8, Paul 6-11 3-4 16, Chambers 4-6 0-0 8, Foy 4-7 0-2 8, Dillahunt 0-1 1-2 1, Munganga 2-3 0-0 5, Traylor 2-4 4-6 10, Webb 0-1 0-0 0, Ross 0-1 0-0 0, Lassiter 0-1 0-0 0, Davis 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 25-48 12-18 71.
3-point goals – Olathe East 4 (Weikal 2, Gooding, Keech), Topeka West 9 (Ford 3, Traylor 2, Duncan 2, Paul, Munganga). Total fouls – Olathe East 21, Topeka West 20. Fouled out – none. Technical fouls – none.
TOPEKA INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT
RESULTS FRIDAY
Wichita SE 69, SM North 66
Lansing 63, Topeka High 55
Highland Park 52, Lawrence 41
Topeka West 71, Olathe East 59
GAMES SATURDAY
10 a.m. -- Topeka High vs. SM North (seventh place).
11:30 -- Wichita SE vs. Lansing (fifth place).
1 p.m. -- Lawrence vs. Olathe East (third place).
2:30 -- Highland Park vs. Topeka West (championship).
