Perry ? After a six-minute scoring drought, Perry-Lecompton girls basketball coach Mark Armstrong only could smile and ask for help from an official standing nearby.

“We’ve been on 13 a long time,” Armstrong said with a laugh. “Can you do something about that?”

Unfortunately for Armstrong, neither the official nor one of his team’s best performances of the year could stop Tonganoxie on Tuesday. The Chieftains rolled to a 57-39 victory.

“I was really pleased with what we did,” Armstrong said, “it’s just that Tonganoxie is 20 points better than we are, if not more.”

Tonganoxie (17-2) found its stride in the second quarter, holding P-L scoreless for the first six minutes of the period while completing an 11-0 run to make it 23-13.

The Kaws just trailed 27-21 at halftime, but a second Tongie run was too much to overcome. The Chieftains put together 11 straight points in the third quarter, taking a 40-25 lead.

“We tried to get it inside a little bit more instead of taking the long shots and tried to run the floor as much as possible,” Tonganoxie forward Heather Deaver said.

The Chieftains also capitalized on their tremendous height advantage. With eight players over 5-foot-8 compared to Perry-Lecompton’s two, Tongie effectively worked the ball into the paint and was rewarded at the free-throw line. Though both teams made 17 field goals, the Chieftains finished 19-of-28 from the stripe compared to the Kaws’ 4-of-5.

“We were more patient and got it inside more instead of taking the quick shots we did earlier,” Tonganoxie coach Randy Kraft said. “That’s just executing our offense, and that’s what we’re going to do against anybody. When they stop us inside, then we’re going to start shooting outside.”

The Kaws came out strong in the first quarter, jumping out to a 5-0 lead after baskets by Tonya Gimzo and Casey Amerine. With the help of back-to-back jumpers by Megan Blosser, the Kaws trailed just 15-13 at the end of the first period.

“For us to put up 13 points in a quarter … there were times at the beginning of the season where we didn’t have 13 points at halftime,” Armstrong said. “We’ve really come a long way.”

Addie Heim led a balanced Tongie scoring attack with 15 points, while Deaver controlled the inside with 11 points and 14 rebounds.

Blosser paced the Kaws (5-14) with nine points.

Armstrong said he was pleased with his team’s effort.

“We’re playing a lot better right now,” Armstrong said. “We played about as well as we’re going to tonight.”