Tonganoxie ? Tonganoxie High’s Laura Jeannin might not have nerves of steel.

After all, she admitted to being a little nervous Saturday night when approached by reporters after her heroics in the championship game of the Tonganoxie Invitational at THS.

Still, there seemed to be plenty of ice pumping through the Chieftain senior’s veins when she nailed two free throws with 15.8 seconds remaining to secure a 34-33 victory over Silver Lake.

“No pressure,” said Jeannin, whose two charities ensured the 9-2 Chieftains would not lose the championship game for the second straight season. “I just knew that I wasn’t going to let us lose that game with me at the line.”

The Chieftains had built such a lead early in the fourth quarter that victory seemed all but inevitable.

“In a game like that, we knew that no lead was safe,” said THS leading scorer Ali Pistora, who tallied eight points in the victory and later was named tourney MVP.

But it was Pistora’s fouling out that helped fuel Silver Lake’s late run.

Tongie took its largest lead, 32-23, with 5:21 remaining when THS senior Addie Heim hit a pair of free throws. But two minutes later, Pistora, the Chieftains’ best ballhandler, fouled out, prompting Silver Lake to use its full-court press.

It worked. Tongie committed three straight turnovers, and Silver Lake guard Steph Bryant gave her squad its first lead of the game with a steal and layup with 31 seconds to play.

Tonganoxie's Addie Heim drives to the basket against Silver Lake. The Chieftains won, 34-33, Saturday in Tonganoxie.

On Tongie’s next possession, it looked as if Silver Lake would prevail. But just as another errant Tongie pass was heading out of bounds, Tongie’s Rebecca Bogard made an over-the-head save to a teammate.

“I just threw it over my head. I knew that if I saved it I would at least give us a chance to score,” Bogard said.

The ball landed in Jeannin’s arms, and she quickly was fouled.

“That was a nail-biter,” THS coach Randy Kraft said. “I think the great thing about this win was that it was a total team effort on a night when quite a few things at the end were working against us.”

Lansing boys 49, Tonganoxie 46, OT

Despite a 20-point effort from senior Sam Mitchell, Tongie’s boys fell to 3-8 with their overtime loss in Saturday’s fifth-place game.

Silver Lake boys 67, Eudora 50

Eudora’s Nolan Smith tallied a team-high 16 points, but that didn’t make much of a difference after Silver Lake’s 27-point spurt in the second quarter of the seventh-place contest.