Free State sophomore Madison Piper was not about to let an illness or any player from Lawrence High stop her from leading the Firebirds to a victory in the girls basketball City Showdown on Friday at FSHS.

Piper scored 19 of her 21 points in the first half and knocked down five three-pointers to help FSHS to a 59-47 win over LHS and keep the Firebirds perfect at 5-0.

“I was running off of adrenaline, I’m not going to lie. There were times where I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. I’m weak,'” Piper said. “It was a fun game, so I was just going off of adrenaline.”

Lawrence High coach Jeff Dickson knew Piper would be a matchup problem going into the game, but he took the fall for not having the Lions ready for the City Showdown.

“I didn’t do a very good job of getting the girls prepared to play in this kind of environment,” Dickson said. “It’s really hard to kind of simulate it. With a young team, once they got rolling and Madison got going, I think it kind of knocked them back a little bit.”

Piper’s barrage of three-pointers fueled the Firebirds to outscore the Lions, 22-13, in the second quarter, but Skylar Drum locked down the FSHS sophomore guard in the second half and held her to just two shots after the break.

“We had Skylar on her at first, and she was doing a good job, but the kid needs to take a break and get a drink, and once we took her out of the game, Madison went off,” Dickson said. “Skylar told me at halftime that she wouldn’t ever score anymore, and we just played the rest of the game, and she did a heck of a job. I think (Drum) held her to two points in the second half, which is pretty incredible.”

But while Piper was contained in the second half, she was still able to get her teammates involved and was a force on the glass. Seniors Sarah Coversup and Adriana Jadlow scored in double figures with 15 and 12 points, respectively. Jadlow made four of seven shots from the field and four of 10 from the charity stripe. Coversup hit only three of her 11 shots, but was able to effectively get to the line to knock down nine of 13 freebies.

“Once you get it in to Sarah, good things happen,” Piper said. “We always need to look for Sarah.”

The Lions hung tough with the Firebirds after the break, but still trailed by double digits for most of the second half. LHS senior Marissa Pope netted a game-high 22 points and was the lone Lion in double figures.

“I started out really slow because I picked up two fouls,” Pope said, “but I just kept attacking the basket and shooting wide-open shots, so I felt pretty good today.”

Dickson was pleased with how the 1-4 Lions competed with Free State for three quarters, but said that his team will need to work on playing for a full 32 minutes when the Lions return from winter break.

“We’ve got to improve on defense,” Dickson said. “In the Sunflower League, you’re going to run into somebody like Madison Piper every single night. If you can’t do a better job with your help-side defense and keeping people from getting dead layups, it’s going to be a long season.”

Lawrence will return to action on Jan. 6 against Leavenworth at LHS.

The Firebirds, who have not lost to their crosstown rival since a sub-state matchup in 2009, will also have a hiatus until Jan. 6 when they host Shawnee Mission East.

“We knew Lawrence High would be good,” FSHS coach Bryan Duncan said. “We’ve played four really competitive games and to be 5-0 is really good for us, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

FREE STATE (59)

Morgan Gantz 1-1 0-0 2, Cameryn Thomas 2-3 1-3 5, Jaycie Bishop 0-3 0-0 0, Adriana Jadlow 4-7 4-10 12, Madison Piper 8-12 0-0 21, Hannah Walter 0-0 0-1 0, Sarah Coversup 3-11 9-13 15, Hannah Shoemaker 2-4 0-0 4. Totals 20-41 14-27 59.

LAWRENCE (47)

Olivia Lemus 1-3 0-0 3, Skylar Drum 1-7 0-0 2, Madison McKinney 1-3 0-0 2, Talima Harjo 1-2 0-0 2, E’lease Stafford 3-8 3-4 9, Marissa Pope 7-13 6-7 22, Matia Finley 1-2 0-0 2, Alexis Boyd 1-3 2-2 4, Devon Spoonhunter 0-8 1-2 1. Total s16-49 12-15 47.

Free State 14 22 13 10 — 59

Lawrence 12 13 12 10 — 47

Three-pointers: Lawrence 3 (Pope 2, Lemus), Free State 5 (Piper 5). Turnovers: Lawrence 10, Free State- 10.