Lawrence sophomore Clarence King guards Topeka High senior Nysir Scott in the third quarter of Saturday's 76-70 loss in the 5th-place game.

Topeka ? Lawrence High boys basketball coach Mike Lewis gave his team a simple message in the visiting locker room Saturday.

Lewis encouraged his team to use its 76-70 loss to Topeka High in the fifth-place game of the Topeka Invitational Tournament as a lesson. In particular, Lewis wanted the Lions to learn how to overcome adversity, something they struggled with during the three-day tournament at Topeka High.

“You have to learn from a game like this and move on,” Lewis said. “It’s a situation where you have to look at character and decide when things aren’t going well, how are you going to handle it? I thought in the third quarter, we just didn’t handle it very well.”

It had been smooth sailing for the Lions prior to going 1-2 during this three-day stretch. They had started the year 7-1 and jumped out to a No. 4 ranking in Class 6A, including a 53-49 victory over the Trojans in the season opener.

But Saturday’s rematch didn’t go quite as planned. At least not in the second half.

Lawrence began the game clicking as a team. Eight different players made a shot from the floor in the first half, where sophomore Brett Chapple notched seven of his 11 points. LHS led by double digits for much of the first half and appeared to be cruising.

“We now know that we are human,” senior Jackson Mallory said. “We know we are going to make mistakes and we need all nine to 12 guys any given day to give us a shot to win.”

The Lions stopped hitting shots in the third period while Topeka High senior Nysir Scott netted nearly every attempt he threw up.

It didn’t seem to matter who defended Scott, whether it was Mallory, Clarence King, Anthony Selden or Braden Solko. Scott scored 13 of his team’s 21 points in the third period to reclaim the advantage for the Trojans, which they hadn’t held since the 6:45 mark in the first quarter.

Scott finished with a career-high 31 points on 17 shot attempts. At one point, he made four consecutive baskets for Topeka, including a pair of triples.

“We couldn’t hit shots and then we started bickering with each other, pointing fingers at each other,” Mallory said.

LHS gave its best effort to steal back the lead in the final period.

After trailing by eight points with a little over two minutes remaining, Lewis and his assistant coaches began ordering the players to foul the opposition. They kept switching players such as sophomore Trey Quartlebaum and junior Steven Strickland on the defensive end to keep some of his veterans from fouling out.

The strategy nearly worked to perfection, as the Lions trimmed it to two, 69-67, with 36.4 seconds left on a pair of free throws by Mallory.

However, the Trojans iced the game, going 8-of-8 at the free throw line to close it out. Three LHS players scored in double figures in a losing effort. Kobe Buffalomeat led the team with 18 points on 11 attempts, while Selden added 11.

“I liked how we finished the game,” Lewis said. “I really thought we have played over the last two games, six really good quarters. We just need to play a full eight quarters to get two wins.”

Lawrence (8-3) will travel to Olathe East at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

TOPEKA (76)

Bysir Scott 11-7 5-7 31, Halen Wilson 2-4 0-2 4, Ky Thomas 4-13 8-15 17, Damarous Allen 3-3 7-8 15, Carson Denny 3-5 1-2 7, Key’andre Smith 0-1 0-0 0, Darren Canty 0-1 2-4 2. Totals: 23-44 23-38.

LAWRENCE (70)

Braden Solko 1-1 0-0 3, Brett Chapple 3-7 5-6 11, Clarence King 2-13 2-4 7, Jackson Mallory 2-12 4-8 9, Kobe Buffalomeat 7-11 4-5 18, Anthony Selden 4-8 2-3 10, Austin Miller 3-6 0-0 7, Noah Butler 0-2 0-0 0, Trey Quartlebaum 2-2 0-0 5. Totals 24-62 17-26 70.

Topeka 13 16 21 26 — 76

Lawrence 21 16 8 25 — 70

Three-point goals: Topeka 7-13 (Scott 4, Allen 2, Thomas); Lawrence 5-16 (Solko, King, Mallory, Miller, Quartlebaum). Fouled out: Allen, TH; Solko, Chapple, Buffalomeat, LHS. Turnovers: Topeka 14, Lawrence 12.