By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
EMPORIA -- After splitting a pair of knockdown, dragout regular-season United Kansas Conference regular-season matchups with Piper, Topeka West basketball coach Christian Ulsaker knew that Tuesday's Class 5A quarterfinal was going to be another fierce battle.
Senior Keimani Paul scored 28 of his game-high 30 points in the second half and OTs, leading Topeka West to an 86-78 Class 5A state tournament win over Piper Tuesday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
But not even Ulsaker could have predicted what transpired at White Auditorium, a double-overtime thriller that had momentum swing after momentum swing and big play after big play before No. 3 seed Topeka West took control in the second extra session to outlast No. 6 Piper, 86-78, and advance to the state semifinals.
"That's what winners do,'' Ulsaker said. "Give (Piper) coach (Steve) Wallace and DJ (Derrick Jackson) and that team all the credit. They didn't want to go home, you could tell, and we didn't want to go home, so it's fun to see two teams battle it out to get a chance at Wichita.''
Topeka West, now 23-3 on the season, advances to an 8 p.m. Thursday night semifinal matchup with No. 2 seed Bonner Springs (25-1), which topped Kansas City-Washington, 68-49.
The stage for Tuesday's Topeka West-Piper marathon was set when Topeka West jumped out to an early 10-4 lead, only to see Piper (18-8) battle back to forge ties at 10-10 and 14-14 before before the Pirates ended the opening quarter with a 5-0 run to take a 19-14 advantage.
Piper went up 21-14, its biggest lead of the night, early in the second stanza, but this time it was West that battled back, with the Chargers tying the game at 23 and eventually going in front 28-23 before the game was tied at 28 and 30.
Piper got the final bucket of the half, on a Cooper Crawford dunk, to take a 32-30 lead at the break.
The back and forth affair continued in the second half, with four lead changes in the third quarter before Piper took a 48-45 advantage into the fourth.
Topeka West almost immediately tied the game on a Malakyah Duncan 3-pointer, one of four ties in the period, including a 59-59 deadlock to force overtime.
West went up 58-56 on a Paul hoop before Jasper Phillips hit a free throw to give the Chargers a 59-56 lead with 7.5 seconds left in regulation before Piper star Jackson drained a clutch 3-pointer at the buzzer.
There were four ties and four lead changes in the first OT and West again had a late lead, at 71-69, before Jackson scored with 8.2 seconds left to send the game to a second extra four-minute period.
But this time the Chargers were able to put the Pirates away after scoring the first nine points of the second OT to open their biggest lead of the night at 80-71 with 1:11 left.
Piper battled all the way back to get within 81-78 with 26 seconds remaining before West ended the game with a 5-0 run.
Senior Malakyah Duncan scored 17 points in Topeka West's 86-78 Class 5A state tournament win over Piper Tuesday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Paul scored 28 of his game-high 30 points in the second half and overtimes while Duncan scored 17 points, Prince Lassiter 13, Jay'Veon Lassiter 11 and Gad Munganga 10 points for the Chargers.
"The first half (Paul) was pretty frustrated, 1 for 2 in the first half,'' Ulsaker said. "He was kind of like, 'Give me the ball, give me the ball,' and I just went in there (the locker room) and said, 'I gave your the ball, OK.' You wanted it, we gave it to you and that's what seniors do. They want the big moments.
"Gad had them, Lok (Duncan) had them, Kei had them. That's a team that wants to win a basketball game.''
"I was mad I wasn't getting (many) touches and they were hounding me first half, but I know that I did not want my season to end today, so I got after it,'' Paul said.
"We took control. We knew the shot that (Jackson) hit to turn it into overtime, we knew that wasn't supposed to happen, so we knew we needed to seal the game with free throws, stay poised and mature, and that's what we did.''
Traylor fouled out with 49.6 seconds remaining in regulation, but Phillips came off the bench to give West solid minutes the rest of the way.
Jackson led Piper with 24 points while Crawford added 19, Alamar Brooks 15 and Jaylen Taylor 11.
TOPEKA WEST BOYS 86, PIPER 78 (2 OT)
Piper 19 13 16 11 12 7 -- 78
Topeka West 14 16 15 14 12 15-- 86
Piper (18-8) – Taylor 4-7 2-4 11, Jackson 9-23 3-6 24, Vogel 0-1 0-0 0, Brooks 5-11 5-9 15, Crawford 7-18 3-4 19, Barnes 1-3 0-1 3, Seigel 0-0 0-0 0, Sayles 3-5 0-0 6. Totals 29-68 13-24 78.
Topeka West (23-3) – Munganga 2-4 4-6 10, Traylor 4-9 1-2 11, Duncan 7-13 1-2 17, Paul 10-16 9-10 30, Lassiter 5-9 2-2 13, Phillips 1-3 1-5 3, Ware 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 30-55 18-27 86.
3-point goals – Piper 7-21 (Jackson 3-8, Crawford 2-6, Taylor 1-3, Barnes 1-3, Vogel 0-1), Topeka West 8-14 (Munganga 2-4, Traylor 2-3, Duncan 2-4, Paul 1-2, Lassister 1-1). Total fouls – Piper 26, Topeka West 22. Fouled out – Traylor, Jackson, Vogeln. Technical fouls -- none.
