Kobe Buffalomeat tries to muscle his way into the paint against Blue Valley on Thursday at Blue Valley.

Stilwell ? Standing at 6-foot-7, Lawrence High senior Kobe Buffalomeat did everything that he could to carry his boys basketball team on his back against Blue Valley High on Thursday.

But even a dominant game from Buffalomeat couldn’t help the Lions in an 80-54 loss in the Blue Valley Shootout semifinals at Blue Valley.

Instead, the Tigers couldn’t be stopped offensively and punished the Lions for any defensive breakdown. If a Lawrence defender guarded the ball tightly, the Tigers would drive down the lane and kick it to a big man for a layup. Give up some space on the perimeter and Blue Valley’s guards had no problems sinking threes.

“They were able to take us off of the dribble whenever they wanted,” Lawrence coach Mike Lewis said.

Blue Valley senior guard Tyler Geiman scored a game-high 25 points with five three-pointers, plus three steals and several assists.

Even when the Tigers (2-0, ranked No. 8 in Class 6A) missed a shot — they were 27-of-49 from the floor (55 percent) — they turned eight offensive rebounds into 15 second-chance points.

“He drove well,” Buffalomeat said of the 6-foot-1 Geiman. “He’s a good player. He could shoot. And if he was driving, you didn’t know if he was going to pull up or dish it off. It was just kind of a gamble with him.”

Buffalomeat was at the top of his game, scoring a career-high 24 points on 10-of-12 shooting. In the post, he used a variety of moves to score over defenders: hook shots, fadeaways, jump shots, or simple low-post muscle.

Blue Valley had a pair of defenders taller than 6-5, but Buffalomeat prefers playing against bigger defenders than smaller forwards. Buffalomeat said it was the most points he could remember scoring since a 32-point game in the seventh grade.

“I don’t know what got into me,” said Buffalomeat, who added seven rebounds and two blocks. “I was kind of feeling it, even though it was hook shots and it was fades. I was just doing what coach (Matt) Stiles was teaching me to — taking my time, pump-faking, just feeling into my man and seeing what I can do with the ball.”

Despite Buffalomeat’s strong play in the paint, the Lions couldn’t keep up with Blue Valley. The Tigers went on a 20-6 over the final 5:25 of the third quarter, shooting 6-of-9 during the stretch and forcing five LHS turnovers.

Trying to play catch up, the Lions (2-1, No. 10 in 6A) shot 1-of-18 from behind the three-point arc.

“I think they flustered us and we felt like we had to take them on individually in certain points of that game just because they hit a three-pointer,” Lewis said. “Maybe one defensive mistake led to us rushing an offensive possession and it was just not a good combination tonight. And it snowballed on us.”

LHS sophomore Clarence King scored 10 points, Noah Butler had eight points and Brett Chapple added four points and seven rebounds.

The Lions will face Highland Park in the Blue Valley Shootout third-place game at 6:30 p.m. today.

Lawrence (54)

Braden Solko 0-0 0-0 0, Clarence King 3-10 4-6 10, Noah Butler 3-6 1-4 8, Jackson Mallory 1-10 0-0 2, Kobe Buffalomeat 10-12 4-6 24, Austin Miller 0-1 2-2 2, Brett Chapple 2-4 0-0 4, Trey Quartlebaum 1-8 0-0 2, Van Dave Jacob 0-1 0-0 0, Savonni Shazor 1-1 0-1 2, Jake Rajewski 0-0 0-0 0, Steven Strickland 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 21-55 11-19 54.

Blue Valley (80)

Gus Gomez 3-4 3-6 9, Tyler Geiman 8-16 4-5 25, Cade Green 4-7 5-6 16, Harry Van Dyne 3-6 0-0 6, Siler Tschirhart 3-7 1-2 7, Will Hobson 1-2 1-2 3, Jack Deveney 3-4 2-3 9, Drew Howard 1-1 0-0 2, Owen Olson 0-1 0-0 0, Michael Jones 0-0 1-2 1, Cade Blasen 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 27-49 17-26 80.

Lawrence 12 11 13 18 — 54

Blue Valley 19 17 27 17 — 80

Three-point goals: Lawrence 1-18 (Butler); Blue Valley 9-18 (Geiman 5, Green 3, Deveney). Fouled out: Tschirhart. Turnovers: Lawrence 10, Blue Valley 8.