Emporia — Facing what seemed to be its final half of the season, Free State High's girls basketball team appeared to play its best quarter of the season.
Down 20 points at halftime to second-seeded Overland Park Aquinas, the No. 7 Firebirds fought within five. But in the end, the Saints (22-1) proved too tough, pulling away with a 52-32 victory in their Class 6A state quarterfinal game Thursday night at White Auditorium.
Free State's Jackie Dubois, left, fights Overland Park Aquinas' Molly Koch for possession of the ball. After cutting a 20-point halftime deficit to five points, the Firebirds fell to the Saints, 52-32, Thursday night at the Class 6A girls state tournament in Emporia.
"Obviously, we're very proud of the way we came back," FSHS coach Craig Hershiser said. "The kids played great. They played on pure heart. They really did. They knew it was coming down to the last 16 minutes and all we had to do was play hard for that long."
Trailing 30-10 at the half, the Firebirds unleashed an 11-0 run that morphed into a 17-2 surge to pull within 32-27 with 57 seconds remaining in the third quarter. Free State, which scored more points in the third quarter than the other three combined, hit eight of its 11 shots in the frame and saw five different players score.
FSHS junior guard Megan Dougherty led the onslaught with back-to-back-to-back baskets, her only six points of the game. The Firebirds also received four points apiece from senior point guard Jackie Dubois and senior guard/forward Katie Rhodes.
"I think the way we came out in the third quarter showed us that we are a good team and we deserved to be here," said Rhodes, who closed her Free State career with a team-high eight points and added four rebounds. "We were showing them what we had."
During the ego-boosting third quarter, Free State held Aquinas to 1-of-12 shooting and forced seven of the Saints' 14 turnovers.
"We had nothing to lose, basically," FSHS senior forward Christina Neighbors said of the Firebirds' mindframe. "We just wanted to come out and scare 'em. Coach was telling us they're not any better than we are. We just have to want it more."
After seeing its lead trimmed to five, Aquinas whose leading scorer, sophomore guard Lauren Wenski, was held to 13 points on 4-of-15 shooting answered with a follow by senior guard Melissa Watkins at the buzzer of the third quarter and then a three-pointer by Watkins just 15 seconds into the fourth.
The Saints set sail on a 10-0 sizz and eventually outscored Free State, 18-5, in the final quarter.
"If we'd played better and took care of our business in the second quarter, we're not in that situation," Hershiser said. "The follow they hit at the end of the third quarter and then scoring early in the fourth, yeah those were big baskets. But they wouldn't have been big baskets if we had handled ourselves a little bit better in the second quarter."
The Firebirds hit just 23.5 percent of their shots (4-of-17) and committed 12 turnovers in the first half. Aquinas, on the other hand, was 13-of-32 shooting and had eight steals.
Dubois scored seven points and had five rebounds in her final game and Neighbors added five points and five rebounds. FSHS senior center Joyia Chadwick was hampered by a muscle strain in her back and didn't score while playing just 11 minutes.
Despite the loss, Free State enjoyed the most successful basketball season in the school's four-year history, setting a school record for wins and winning a sub-state championship.
"We're disappointed in this loss tonight," Hershiser said, "but overall for the season we need to enjoy what we've done. We need to be real confident and feel good about our season and what we've accomplished. Later this spring we'll start working on next year."
The Firebirds will lose six seniors from this year's squad guard Kristin Bock, Chadwick, Dubois, Neighbors, Rhodes and forward Lauren Wilkinson that finished 16-7. Thursday's loss to Aquinas was Free State's first by more than two points in 11 games. The Firebirds had won eight of 10 coming into state.
"I'm really horrible in the locker room after a game like this when it's the last game of the year," Hershiser said. "There's so many things that I want to say, but most of it just kind of gets lost in a jumble. These kids, they're the ones who really brought us to this point. For those seniors that have been with us, for my three years anyway, it's been a gradual progression.
"You see what they've done for us and how successful they've been."
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