TOPEKA — Lawrence High’s boys basketball players have faced plenty of full-court presses throughout the season. None of them could match what they saw against Vashon (Mo.) in Friday’s Topeka Invitational Tournament semifinal game.

The St. Louis powerhouse’s aggressive 1-2-2 press defense relentlessly hounded ball handlers and jumped passing lanes. In the first quarter, the Lions had three times as many turnovers (seven) as points (two).

Trailing by 15 points in the first eight minutes, the Lions spent the rest of their 64-53 loss at Highland Park trying to play catch-up. They finally cut their deficit to single digits with less than three minutes remaining, but Lawrence was never closer than seven points.

The Lions (7-4, ranked No. 8 in Class 6A) will face Wichita South in the third-place game at 3:30 p.m. today.

“They are definitely more aggressive and a lot quicker than other teams,” LHS junior forward Brett Chapple said. “It’s hard to simulate in practice.”

Chapple, who finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds, scored Lawrence’s only points in the first quarter, converting on a put-back with three minutes left in the period. The Lions spent the rest of the time sped up — “Out of sorts,” LHS coach Mike Lewis said — against Vashon’s defense.

The difference from other presses was the amount of speed and length. Any moment of indecision with the ball led to turnovers. Dribble past the press and prepare to be double-teamed with a defender from behind.

“When they see you start to curl up and fall apart, you are like a piece of raw meat and here they come,” Lewis said. “I can respect that.”

Compounding the slow start, the Lions shot 1 of 12 in the first quarter. On the other side of the court, 6-foot-2 junior Mario McKinney, a four-star recruit with several Division I offers, scored nine of his game-high 19 points.

The Wolverines (11-2, ranked No. 1 in Missouri’s Class 4), who won the tournament last year, led by as many as 20 points in the fourth quarter before the Lions put together a rally. Attacking Vashon’s defense with passes instead of dribbles, the Lions went on an 18-5 run with seven points from junior point guard Trey Quartlebaum.

“In the locker room (at halftime), all the players came together,” Quartlebaum said, “and we were like, ‘We can’t come out here in the semifinals and get smacked. We know everyone is talking about them. We want to show what we can do, too.'”

Van Dave Jacob, Lawrence’s 5-foot-6 senior guard, had two steals and a blocked shot in the frantic rally. Junior guard Clarence King added five points. The comeback fell short when the Lions missed five shots in the last two minutes.

“I told our guys, I love our fight,” Lewis said. “I didn’t like our composure in the first quarter, but if you take away the first quarter, I thought our composure was better. I don’t think we fell apart for any particular reason with the exception that Vashon was just really taking it to us and we didn’t have an answer.”

Five named to all-academic team: Five Lawrence players were named to the tournament’s all-academic team, which requires a 3.5 GPA: Ethan Bentzinger, Garrett Hart, Peyton Mallory, Jake Rajewksi and Nick Ray.

Vashon (64)

Phillip Russell 4-8 0-0 10, Mario McKinney 7-17 4-4 19, Donyae McCaskill 2-6 5-6 9, Cam’ron Fletcher 3-10 0-1 6, Cyrus Alexander 2-2 3-3 7, Chanze Crusoe 1-2 1-2 3, Kobe Clark 3-4 1-2 8, Markell McCurry 1-1 0-0 2, Armoni Ward 0-2 0-0 0, Kiyjuan Irwin 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-52 14-18 64.

Lawrence (53)

Anthony Selden 1-4 0-2 2, Brett Chapple 6-8 0-0 12, Trey Quartlebaum 3-11 2-2 10, Jake Rajewski 1-3 0-0 2, Savonni Shazor 2-3 0-0 4, Clarence King 5-15 2-2 13, Van Dave Jacob 4-8 2-2 10, Zeke Mayo 0-3 0-2 0. Totals 22-55 6-10 53.

Vashon 17 15 15 17 — 64

Lawrence 2 15 14 22 — 53

3-point goals: Vashon 4-12 (Russell 2, McKinney, Clark); Lawrence 3-16 (Quartlebaum 2, King). Fouled out: None. Turnovers: Vashon 17, Lawrence 21.