Free State junior Susan Wilson struggles for a loose ball against Topeka High's Shiya Brown during Tuesday night's game at Free State High School. The Firebirds defeated the Trojans 56-30.

Seven points may not sound like many, but to Katie Scrivo they seemed like 50.

“And I had two blocks,” Scrivo said. “I’ve never had that.”

A 5-foot-10 junior reserve, Scrivo played most of the fourth quarter as Free State cruised to a 56-30 girls basketball victory over Topeka High on Tuesday night in the FSHS gym.

“She gave us good minutes,” Free State coach Bryan Duncan said of Scrivo, who is the leading scorer on the Firebirds’ JV team.

After the Firebirds made eight of nine shots and outscored the Trojans, 18-1, in the decisive third quarter, Duncan used mostly JV players during the last eight minutes.

“We have such good varsity players,” Scrivo said, “but when we started to get up, I was hoping I would get in.”

Tuesday’s game — a make-up from a weather-related postponement on Dec. 16 — was a rarity for the Firebirds (5-4) because they hadn’t had a real breather all season.

“We’ve played a very difficult schedule, and every game had been tight,” Duncan said. “The reality is that we were just a little bit better than they were.”

In coach-speak maybe, but in reality the Firebirds were a whole lot better. That 8-for-9 third-quarter sizz fueled Free State’s torrid 57.9 percent shooting (22 of 38), a season-best.

“Our bench was great,” Duncan said. “Katie Scrivo was outstanding.”

So were the starters. Chantay Caron scored 16 points, Wren Wiebe 11, Ashleigh Allam nine and Lexi Smith eight.

In amassing their single-game scoring high, the Firebirds also had four three-point goals — two each by Caron and Smith — to quadruple their season total.

Free State didn’t produce a three-point goal until its eighth game. That was Friday, when Caron hit a desperation trey just before halftime in a victory over Shawnee Mission East.

Scrivo’s caddy work also enabled Duncan to keep 6-4 junior Ashli Hill on the bench during most of the second half.

“She has a quad injury that’s bugging her,” Duncan said of Hill, “but she’s a gamer, and she wanted to play.”

Duncan said Hill should be at full speed for the next game.