LHS stages stirring rally for title

Lawrence High players surround senior Fred Brou, center, to celebrate his last second tip in basket to give the Lions the victory during the Topeka Invitational championship game Saturday in Topeka. The Lions defeated Highland Park, 62-61, in overtime.

Topeka ? Back from the dead, in a game long thought to be over, Lawrence High’s boys basketball team just refused to back down Saturday.

The Lions, playing without senior standout Justin Roberts, trailed by 14 points with about four minutes remaining in regulation before forcing overtime against Highland Park at Topeka West.

Down by a point with five seconds left in OT, LHS senior forward Fred Brou scored on a tip-in before the buzzer for a 62-61 victory, winning the Topeka Invitational Tournament championship for the second time in the three years. In 2013, the Lions also beat Highland Park by one point after trailing by 14 points in the second half.

Brou’s tip-in sparked bedlam on the court. Highland Park players put their hands on their heads in disbelief. The Lions ran around the court with their arms in the air, looking for somebody to hug. Brou, in all of the excitement, even jumped into Roberts’ arms after he dislocated his shoulder Friday.

“It was just crazy,” LHS freshman Noah Butler said. “Words can’t describe it.”

Trailing by 14 points, nobody said anything special in any of the LHS huddles. There wasn’t one play that inspired the turnaround. The Lions (12-1, ranked No. 3 in Class 6A) had trouble creating offense without their senior point guard Roberts, a four-year starter.

Without having a guard to drive into the paint and kick to teammates, senior forward Price Morgan did his best to keep his team alive. He scored a game-high 20 points, knocking down jumpers and fighting for layups in the paint.

Morgan hit two free throws to start a 13-0 run over the next three minutes, with eight points from Brou and a three-pointer from junior Jackson Mallory. The Scots (7-5) turned the ball over twice, missed two shots and missed the front-end of two one-and-one free-throw attempts during the stretch.

“If you look back over our three games, we just sputtered a little bit and were in a little bit of a funk,” LHS coach Mike Lewis said. “We didn’t play real well, but it just shows that we’re a pretty resilient group, and we’re able to just stick together and sometimes just figure it out.”

In the final minute, after Highland Park made two free throws for a three-point lead, Mallory missed a three, and senior guard Anthony Harvey missed on a putback attempt. It gave the Scots a odd-numbered fast break, but Butler blocked a shot at the rim — somehow avoiding a goal-tending call. Despite all of the chaos on both sides of the court, Butler knocked down a game-tying three with 30 seconds left in regulation.

“It was huge, especially without Justin,” Mallory said. “Everyone just stepped up. Noah stepping up as a freshman, coming in and playing big minutes in the fourth … everyone just coming in and playing without our key player.”

The Lions led for most of overtime after Butler banked in a layup, Morgan hit two free throws and Mallory drilled a three-pointer from the left corner on a give-and-go with Harvey.

But Highland Park made four free throws in the final 20 seconds and took a 61-60 lead with five seconds left.

With one last chance at securing a tournament title, Mallory dribbled down the court and fired a shot from the baseline with three defenders running toward him. Mallory’s shot went long, but Brou, who remembered his coaches telling him most rebounds go on the other side of the rim, was in the right spot for the game-winning score.

“They missed a couple of free throws. We hit some shots,” Lewis said of the comeback. “Sometimes the tide turns like that, and it can turn very quickly in basketball. The beauty of the game, right?”

Academic achievements: Lawrence had five players named the tournament’s all-academic team: Brou, Morgan, junior Braden Solko, sophomore Jake Rajewski and freshman Trey Quartlebaum.

LAWRENCE (62)

Braden Solko 0-1 0-0 0, Price Morgan 8-13 4-4 20, Fred Brou 6-10 4-7 16, Anthony Harvey 0-6 3-4 3, Jackson Mallory 3-7 0-2 8, Austin Miller 0-0 0-0 0, Noah Butler 4-5 3-4 13, Kobe Buffalomeat 1-5 0-0 2. Totals 22-47 14-21 62.

HIGHLAND PARK (61)

Malik Keith 5-12 5-6 16, Daishoun Fox 3-5 4-5 11, Larry White 3-5 0-0 6, Ahmad Fox 0-1 0-0 0, Harold Emanuel 7-13 1-4 15, Jahlil Osby 3-6 0-1 9, Will White 0-0 0-0 0, Dashawn Williams 2-4 0-0 4, Kenny Stewart 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-47 10-16 61.

Lawrence 13 6 12 22 9 — 62

Highland 15 11 14 13 8 — 61

Three-point goals: Lawrence 4-14 (Mallory 2, Butler 2); Highland Park 5-14 (Osby 3, Keith, Fox). Turnovers: Lawrence 14, Highland Park 9.