By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Mikey Williams is usually a reliable free throw shooter, including a 90.9 percent average in the first city stats, which made his struggles at the line in Saturday's Topeka Invitational Tournament championship game a bit frustrating for the Highland Park senior star.
Highland Park senior Mikey Williams (middle) scored a game-high 15 points in Saturday's 44-41 win over Topeka West in the Topeka Invitational championship game en route to being named tourament MVP. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Highland Park poses for a team picture after winning the 2025 Topeka Invitational championship Saturday at Topeka High. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
But Williams was able to get eight charities to fall in the fourth quarter, including five in the final 1:32, as the top-ranked and undefeated Scots held off city rival Topeka West 44-41 to claim the tournament championhip in the first all-city final in 21 seasons.
"Usually I'm a really good free throw shooter,'' Williams said. "I'm the guy they look to shoot free throws at the end of a game, but I don't know, maybe it was just fatigue from three games in a row. I think the fatigue just sort of settled in my legs, they were feeling heavy.
"Every time after I missed I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I need these to seal the game,' so I was super frustrated because I knew my team needed those in that moment, but I'm just glad we got the win.''
Williams was a big part of that win and the Scots' championship, being named the tournament most valuable player after scoring a game-high 15 points in the final as top-ranked (Class 5A) Highland Park improved to 11-0 on the season.
Highland Park struggled at times against the No. 7-ranked Chargers (8-3), but did the things it needed to do to get the win according to Scots coach Mike Williams.
"You can't be disappointed with that at all,'' said Williams, whose Scots played without senior starter Da'Mykel Hales due to illness. "In tournament play you're looking to advance and you get to the championhip game you're looking to win any way possible.
"And I felt like our guys did that, even when our offense wasn't as clean at times as it has been. Credit to teams having a good game plan, focusing in on things that they can take away from us and how they should play us and we responded. And I think when our offense kind of slowed our defense got stingy and we just take pride in it.''
Highland Park led the bulk of Saturday's game, but Topeka West refused to go away.
The Scots led 6-4 after a low-scoring opening quarter and 19-14 at the half before going up by a game-high 8 points (27-19) with 5:15 left in the third on a Williams bucket.
But the Chargers answered in a hurry, cutting their deficit to 29-28 at the end of the third and taking a brief 30-29 advantage at the 7:28 mark on a hoop from junior Keimani Paul.
That West lead only lasted about a minute, however, as Highland Park senior star Ja'Corey Robinson was fouled on a driving dunk and converted the 3-point play to give the Scots a 32-30 advantage.
Sophomore Joseph Kingcannon followed with a basket and Williams hit two free throws to put Hi Park up 36-30 with 4:54 remaining.
Topeka West clawed within a point twice, the final time on two Malakyah Duncan free throws with 9.6 seconds left, but Williams hit two charities at the other end to give Hi Park its final margin.
"The shots weren't falling for us, especially in the first half,'' West coach Christian Ulsaker said. "Now I'm sure that's what coach Williams would say as well, but we were missing bunnies early and then we just didn't make the right plays at the end. I think we need to play a little bit more tougher as when we're attacking the rim we can't get bumped out of our spots and we've got to finish at the rim.''
But Ulsaker was also proud of his team for the way it kept battling back.
"If you want to bring back up the Shawnee Heights game (a 74-45 loss), these boys were able to deal with adversity better,'' he said. "They didn't back down. A run happens and then they came back with a run of their own, which is very pleasing to see for sub-state and state material.''
West did not have a player crack double figures, but Duncan had 9 points and Paul and senior Javian Chambers 8 apiece.
Junior Topeka West all-tournament pick Keimani Paul (13) drives to the basket in Saturday's Topeka Invitational final. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Paul and senior Kamoni Ford were named to the all-tournament team.
Robinson, who had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds, joined Williams on the all-tourney team for Highland Park.
The Scots and Chargers will play a rematch on Feb. 5 at Highland Park.
HIGHLAND PARK 44, TOPEKA WEST 41
Topeka West 4 10 14 13 -- 41
Highland Park 6 13 10 15 -- 44
Topeka West (8-3) – Ford 1-9 0-0 3, Duncan 2-6, 5-5 9, Paul 3-8 0-0 8, Chambers 4-6 0-0 8, Foy 1-9 3-4 5, Mudganga 1-2 0-0 3, Traylor 1-4 3-4 5, Lassiter 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 13-44 11-13 41.
Highland Park (11-0) – Brown 0-1 0-0 0, Wilson 2-4 2-4 6, Kelley 3-5 1-2 7, Williams 3-10 9-18 15, Robinson 4-8 2-4 10, Kingcannon 1-4 0-0 2, Bradley 0-1 0-0 0, Montgomery 1-2 0-0 2, Thomas 1-1 0-0 2. Totals: 15-31 14-29 44.
3-point goals – Lawrence 5 (Dooley 2, Johnson, Ramirez, Doleman), Highland Park 5 (Hales 3, Wilson, Robinson). Total fouls – Lawrence 13, Highland Park 14. Fouled out – none. Technical fouls – none.
SM North tops Topeka High in 3 OTs
For the third straight game, Topeka High gave itself a chance to garner its first victory in Saturday's seventh-place game against Shawnee Mission North.
But after extending the game to three overtimes, Topeka High struggled over the final four minutes, with the Bison (2-9) outscoring the Troans (0-11) by a 14-2 margin to take an 80-28 victory.
Sophomore Le' Andre Franklin led SM North with 24 points while all-tournament pick Alex Casares, a junior, added 21 points and sophomore Dailan Holman 13.
Junior all-tournament selection Jalen Aldridge led Topeka High with 21 points while junior Elisha Guest added 19 points with five 3-pointers and junior Octavian McFadden 11.
SM NORTH 80, TOPEKA HIGH 68
Topeka High 15 11 13 12 6 9 2 -- 68
SM North 10 11 16 14 6 9 14 -- 80
Topeka High (0-11) – Guest 7 0-2 19, McFadden 3 3-6 11, Aldridge 7 5-6 21, Campbell 0 0-0 0, McComas 3 3-6 9, Redmond 0 0-0 0, Dingle 1 0-0 2, Mallory 1 0-0 2, Carter 1 2-2 4. Totals 23 13-22 68.
SM North (2-9) – Nash 1 3-6 5, Harris 3 2-2 8, Franklin 7 10-14 24, Casares 8 4-9 21, Holman 5 2-2 13, Barnett 0 4-4 4, Dyer 2 0-0 5, Kermoade 0 0-0 0. Totals 26 25-37 80.
3-point goals – Topeka High 9 (Guest 5, McFadden 2, Aldridge 2), SM North 3 (Dyer, Casares, Holman). Total fouls – Topeka High 26, SM North 16. Fouled out – Aldridge, McComas. Technical fouls – none.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Alex Casares, jr., Shawnee Mission North; Reece Mattingly, so., Lansing; Aden Ramirez, sr., Lawrence; Parker Hargrave, sr., Wichita Southeast; Carter Gooding, sr., Olathe East; Jalen Aldridge, jr., Topeka High; Kamoni Ford, sr., Topeka West; Keimani Paul, jr., Topeka West; Ja'Corey Robinson, sr., Highland Park; Mikey Williams, jr., Highland Park (Most Valuable Player).
TOPEKA INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT
RESULTS SATURDAY
SM North 80, Topeka High 68 2 OTs (seventh place)
Lansing 75, Wichita SE 73 OT (fifth place)
Olathe East 64, Lawrence 54 (third place(
Highland Park 44, Topeka West 41
