Tonganoxie ? Last season’s victory over Jefferson West in the Tonganoxie Invitational might have meant more to the Chieftains than their 45-27 victory Friday over the Tigers.

But the latest victory secured Tongie (8-2) a spot in today’s 5:30 p.m. title game for the second straight season.

“Revenge is always sweet,” Tongie senior Addie Heim said. “I mean, after losing to them in last year’s championship game, we went on to beat them a week later, but even that didn’t really make up for our loss. So it felt pretty good to put them away tonight.”

The Chieftains looked energized early, limiting Jeff West to just nine points in the first half. And two 10-0 spurts at the end of the first two quarters easily provided a 19-point halftime advantage.

“It might have looked that way on the scoreboard, but it never felt like that, let me tell you,” THS coach Randy Kraft said.

“They’re the kind of team that is always capable of coming back, and we let them do just that with a little lackluster play on our part in the second half.”

Kraft was pleased with his squad’s effort in the first 16 minutes, but he said the Chieftains could ill-afford to make the same second-half mistakes tonight against Silver Lake (8-2).

“They’re an awfully quick and talented team,” Kraft said. “I think their are a few match-up problems on both sides, but hopefully will be able to take advantage of ours.”

Tongie did that against Jeff West. Sophomore Ali Pistora led a balanced Chieftain attack with 11 points, post player Heather Deaver tallied 10, and Heim and Elizabeth Baska each added eight.

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“It all started with our seniors tonight. They really led the charge,” Pistora said. “It was a great win to get us where we wanted to be, but now we still have to take care of a little unfinished business from last year.”

Tonganoxie’s boys will play in today’s fifth-place game against Lansing at 11:30 a.m., and Eudora’s boys will take on Silver Lake at 2:30 in the seventh-place contest.