Blue Valley North boys top Shawnee Mission Northwest at Kansas 6A state tournament

When the Blue Valley North boys basketball team needed a spark late in its Class 6A state quarterfinals game Thursday, senior forward Jawan Emery answered the call.

He scored eight straight points which included two dunks to help Blue Valley North defeat Shawnee Mission Northwest 66-57 on Thursday night at Koch Arena. Blue Valley North improved to 19-4 and advanced to the Class 6A state semifinals where it will face Wichita East at 8:15 tonight.

“When he gets his motor going, he is tough to stop inside, outside, offense or defense,” Mustangs coach Ryan Phifer said. “He is a special player.”

The Mustangs led by as many as 10 points in the third quarter, but saw their lead whittled to two points in the fourth quarter before Emery’s run.

Emery finished with 18 points and Cooper Cook scored a game-high 19 points for the Mustangs.

The Cougars’ Jake Horner, Warren Specht and Dehven Talley had 11 points each.

Trailing by one point with about 3 seconds remaining on the clock, the Olathe East boys basketball team had the ball right where it wanted: in the hands of Caelan Neal.

However, Neal was unsuccessful on a floater attempt in the lane and Ezra Talbert got tangled up on the rebound as seconds ticked away in a heartbreaking loss to Maize.

“I don’t know if it was a great look or not, but it was a look and it didn’t go in and we didn’t get an offensive rebound to put it back,” Hawks coach Jim Super said. “They got a big offensive rebound and that was the difference.”

Olathe East had a six-point lead midway through the fourth quarter, but Maize quickly erased it with back-to-back three-point plays. The Eagles took the lead after Jacob Horsch rebounded and put back his own miss with 25.4 seconds to play.

Neal finished with a game-high 20 points and Talbert added 10 for the Hawks.

Kansas 6A defending state champion Blue Valley Northwest picked up right where it left off last season, scoring the first 10 points of the game before cruising to victory.

“We got out to a really good start and I thought we offensive rebounded the best we have,” BV Northwest coach Ed Fritz said. “We didn’t shoot the ball very well, but we got a lot of steals and forced them into some bad shots. They had a height advantage, but we did a pretty good job of negating it offensively.”

Blue Valley Northwest shot 38.9 percent from the field in the game, but out-rebounded Wichita North 40-30.

Clayton Custer of BV Northwest turned in a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds, but Vince Fritz led the Huskies with 18 points.

This story was originally published March 13, 2014 at 7:01 PM with the headline "Blue Valley North boys top Shawnee Mission Northwest at Kansas 6A state tournament."