Lawrence High guard Anthony Harvey turns to celebrate after hitting a three against Wichita Northwest during the second half of the Topeka Invitational Tournament at Topeka West High School.

Topeka ? Sitting on the bench for several minutes in the third quarter because of foul trouble Thursday, Lawrence High senior point guard Justin Roberts knew he needed to make an impact once he was back on the court.

Trailing by three points with under five minutes left, Roberts scored nine straight points and led his boys basketball team to a 65-57 victory over Wichita Northwest in the first round of the Topeka Invitational Tournament at Topeka West.

On three straight possessions, Roberts had the ball at the top of the arc, waited for junior forward Kobe Buffalomeat to set a ball screen, and found a way to score. He dribbled to his right and knocked down a three. He went to his left to hit another three. Then he drove past his defender for a layup and a 55-49 advantage with 3:13 remaining.

“We ran a couple of ball screens for (Roberts) and let him play with some freedom,” LHS coach Mike Lewis said. “He did a nice job of being the aggressor and getting to the rim on a couple (of plays). There’s no hiding it, he’s our go-to guy. He did what Justin has done now for a long time.”

The Grizzlies (4-6) twice made it a one-possession contest with under two minutes left, but Roberts and senior guard Anthony Harvey made all of their free throws. Senior forward Fred Brou added a dunk in the final 15 seconds and Price Morgan scored on a putback. Roberts scored 15 of his game-high 23 points in the final period.

Lawrence’s big plays in the fourth quarter helped disguise some of the ugliness from the first half. Lewis said his team had a “foggy start” in the first quarter. Roberts called it a “trance.”

The Lions (10-1, ranked No. 3 in Class 6A) shot 2-of-12 from the floor with four turnovers in the first quarter. They had problems adjusting to the early afternoon start with little energy on the court.

“Sometimes that 3:15 game can be that way,” Lewis said. “You come over and you are a little out of sync. I can come up with all kinds of excuses, but we just weren’t real good today.”

The Grizzlies only shot 39 percent from the field, but they grabbed 16 offensive rebounds, which turned into 20 second-chance points.

“A lot of the balls were coming off the rims weird and stuff like that,” Brou said. “We probably could’ve done a better job of getting bodies on people, but there are days when you won’t have 50/50 balls go your way.”

The Lions were without junior starter Jackson Mallory, who was sick. Harvey scored seven points and grabbed seven rebounds. Morgan had nine points and 15 rebounds and Brou added 18 points and seven rebounds.

The Lions will face Topeka High (5-5) at 6:45 p.m. today in the semifinals.

Wichita Northwest (57)

Lorenzo Ruffin 2-6 0-3 4, Jalen Smith 7-16 1-2 16, Jamir Cupps 0-5 1-2 1, Michael Duncan 5-13 0-0 11, Dawson Kohlman 1-2 0-0 2, Luke Carter 7-17 1-2 18, Demarquez Phillips 2-3 0-0 5, Jordan Trotter 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-62 3-9 57.

Lawrence (65)

Braden Solko 0-1 1-2 1, Justin Roberts 7-15 7-8 23, Price Morgan 3-7 3-9 9, Fred Brou 7-12 4-9 18, Anthony Harvey 2-7 2-2 7, Noah Butler 1-3 1-2 3, Kobe Buffalomeat 0-0 0-0 0, Austin Miller 2-3 0-0 4. Totals 22-48 18-32 65.

Northwest 12 13 13 19 — 57

Lawrence 7 18 12 28 — 65

Three-point goals: Northwest 6-23 (Carter 3, Smith, Duncan, Phillips); Lawrence 3-13 (Roberts 2, Harvey). Fouled out: Roberts. Turnovers: Northwest 9, Lawrence 11.