Lawrence’s Kobe Buffalomeat (50) blocks a shot attempt from Manhattan’s Luke Saville (4) on Wednesday afternoon in the Class 6A state tournament opener in Koch Arena. Buffalomeat led Lawrence to a 51-44 overtime victory scoring 23 points.

Wichita ? Lawrence High had to defeat two teams Wednesday afternoon in Koch Arena in order to advance to the semifinals of the Class 6A boys basketball state tournament.

The Lions defeated Manhattan High, 51-44, in overtime in Koch Arena only because they finally got around to beating a more stubborn collection of basketball players: themselves. What had to be obvious to everyone sitting and watching seemingly didn’t fully sink in with the Lions until it almost was too late: Put the ball in Kobe Buffalomeat’s hands and a) he won’t drop it, b) he will throw it softly off the glass and c) it will fall through the net for two points.

The formula was a simple as reciting your ABCs, but the Lions didn’t adhere to it consistently until the fourth and overtime periods, when the 6-foot-7 center headed to Illinois State on a football scholarship scored 13 of his game-high 23 points.

Buffalomeat blamed himself for not being active enough and it was nice of him to do that, but he was active enough to turn three first-half offensive rebounds into six of 10 points before intermission. Buffalomeat didn’t take a shot in the Lions’ four-point third quarter.

“Third quarter, every time the ball came to my side, they started fronting me, no matter what,” Buffalomeat said. “Then they also had a guy throw me off, so that’s a part of the reason I didn’t get the ball much. But it was also part of my energy.

“Third quarter, I kind of came out with no energy. I was just kind of standing there. Coaches, teammates just told me to step it up. Fourth quarter and overtime came and I just had to know my senior role to come in and help this team win.”

Manhattan didn’t have the size to contend with Buffalomeat and 6-4 Brett Chapple (nine points, eight rebounds).

“He’s kind of like the undercover guy,” senior Jackson Mallory said of Chapple, a sophomore. “He battles his way in there, gets every board and finishes the layups that we give him. He doesn’t want to force his own shot. He’s a huge part of our team.”

Buffalomeat’s response to not getting the ball is what you want to hear out of a teammate in that he talked about what he needed to do better, but the truth is it was only a small part of the equation.

Buffalomeat and Chapple combined to make 13 of 15 shots from the field. The rest of the team made 4 of 25 field goals, all of their attempts coming in regulation.

Late in the game, Clarence King and Mallory did a nice job of pulling one of the double-teaming defenders away from Buffalomeat with hard drives and dumping it off to him. He made 9 of 10 shots from the field and 5 of 5 from the line.

Before the guards consistently found Buffalomeat, Manhattan charged at the Lions without fear.

Led by Trevor Hudgins, a quick, strong, balanced, smart guard, Manhattan gradually made a deficit that grew as large as 13 points completely vanish. Mallory made Hudgins work hard for his 19 points, defending him well.

“We rushed a lot of shots,” Mallory said. “We stopped giving it to Buff and Manhattan’s a great team and they fought back hard. We definitely need to feed Buff. You’re not going to find many teams with a 6-7, 285-pound guy like that, so just feed the ball to Buff. He’s a smart player and if he gets double-teamed, he won’t try to force it. He’ll kick it outside.”

LHS coach Mike Lewis gave much of the credit to the job Manhattan did stopping his guards from penetrating to places where they could feed Buffalomeat.

Still, if the Lions want to maximize their chances of advancing to the title game, they need to look for the big man every time down the floor.