Free States Morgan Gantz, left, and Hannah Walter, center, celebrate after a basket by Gantz in a Firebirds win against Topeka West Thursday, in a first-round game at the Firebird Winter Classic tournament at FSH.

Free State High sophomore Madison Piper didn’t play in the second half against Topeka West on Thursday afternoon. That was the only way any defense was going to stop her.

Piper put on a show in the first half, making her first five shots, including four threes, to lead the Firebirds to a 58-19 victory in the first round of the Firebird Winter Classic at FSHS.

The 5-foot-10 wing scored a game-high 26 points, with 15 points in the first quarter. She shot 8-for-11 from the field and went a perfect 5-for-5 at the free throw line.

“I don’t even know what happened,” Piper said. “I don’t even remember half of it.”

The Firebirds (9-1, ranked No. 5 in Class 6A) opted to sit Piper, who’s missed some practices with a back injury, for the entire second half after her impressive performance in the first two quarters. The school record belongs to Chantay Caron, who scored 36 against Shawnee Mission West in 2009.

“It never gets old seeing that,” FSHS coach Bryan Duncan said of Piper’s play. “That just shows what a great shooter she really is. We see it all of the time in practice. When she’s open, she’s going to make shots.”

“Certainly, I know, it would have been fun to see it continue in the second half,” Duncan added, “but we understand this is a three-day event, and she’s going to do that again, for sure.”

Piper’s hot shooting was contagious for her teammates. Despite playing in the typically low-energy afternoon game, the Firebirds shot 7-for-10 in the first quarter, with four threes from Piper and another from senior forward Sarah Coversup. Senior forward Adriana Jadlow also added a layup at the end of the first quarter to help Free State to a 22-7 lead.

“We always get hyped in the locker room, and Sarah always gets us excited, so we just brought that out on the floor,” Piper said.

The Firebirds didn’t slow down in the second quarter. Piper scored six straight points to open the period on a 8-0 run. Free State ended the half with a 16-1 stretch, with six points from Coversup, five points from Piper, and layups by seniors Morgan Gantz and Hannah Shoemaker.

Coversup scored 13 points in the first half before she also sat for the entire second half.

“I think they were extremely excited to get to play a game again,” Duncan said. “That’s a lot of fun. Certainly we were playing a team we were quite a bit better than today. But we still played with a lot of enthusiasm and did what we needed to do.”

With Piper and Coversup on the bench, Jadlow scored eight points in the third quarter, drilling two three-pointers. Junior Peyton Brown also scored on a putback, giving Free State a 56-14 lead and a running clock to begin the fourth quarter.

“I was pretty happy,” Jadlow said. “It feels good to get a win like that, especially starting off the tournament.”

Piper said there were no warning signs for her scoring outburst against the Chargers (0-11). She hasn’t been shooting the ball extra in practice, and her shot was a little off in pre-game warmups. But once she locked in, there was no stopping her.

“We all had a lot of fun during that game, and that’s really important,” Piper said. “When we have fun, we always do great. I think that the next game, we’re really prepared for that and we’re all ready to go.”

The Firebirds will face Hutchinson at 6:30 p.m. today in the semifinals.

FREE STATE (58)

Morgan Gantz 1-2 1-1 3, Madison Piper 8-11 5-5 26, Hannah Walter 0-0 0-0 0, Sarah Coversup 5-8 2-4 13, Hannah Shoemaker 1-2 0-0 2, Adriana Jadlow 4-8 0-2 10, Jaycie Bishop 0-3 0-0 0, Peyton Brown 1-3 0-0 2, Calli Bowen 1-4 0-0 2, Sophia Jadlow 0-0 0-0 0, Erin Cushing 0-1 0-0 0, Caroline Patton 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-42 8-12 58.

TOPEKA WEST (19)

Fherrin Manning 3-8 2-2 10, Regan Braun 1-4 4-4 6, Kelsey Bowers 0-1 0-0 0, Addison Donohue 0-2 1-2 1, Lauryn Davis 1-3 0-0 2, Savannah Guy 0-1 0-0 0, Sierra Smith 0-3 0-2 0, Alyssa Gentry 0-3 0-0 0, Desire Mathews 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 5-26 7-10 19.

T-West 7 3 4 5 — 19

Free State 22 24 10 2 — 58

Three-point field goals: Free State 8-16 (Piper 5, Jadlow 2, Coversup); Topeka West 2-9 (Manning 2). Turnovers: Free State 11, Topeka West 20.