STILWELL ? Lawrence High’s Brandon McAnderson badly missed a late free throw in the Lions’ 48-39 victory over Blue Valley on Saturday, but all he could manage was a smile.

Not much else the big man could do, considering the circumstances. McAnderson’s misfired free throw was the culmination of a valiant effort by the Blue Valley squad to reduce its 14-point fourth-quarter deficit. In a whirlwind 90 seconds of game time, the Tigers committed enough fouls and stopped play so much it took about 10 minutes in real time.

But Blue Valley could get only as close as five points before McAnderson and the Lions shut the door.

“I really appreciated their effort,” said McAnderson, who also wrestled away a rebound, scored on an acrobatic basket and had another alligator-armed missed free throw in the 90-second frenzy.

“I’m coming off a football injury and not quite in basketball shape,” he said with a laugh.

McAnderson broke down a Blue Valley full-court press that had produced six LHS turnovers when he split two defenders, dribbled behind his back and found a wide-open Noah Winter for a layup with a 1:31 left.

The basket was Lawrence’s first of the quarter and all but sealed the Lions’ third-place finish in the Blue Valley Shootout.

Lawrence had a 13-5 run in the third quarter, but then came the fourth-quarter momentum shift. Lawrence, which committed 20 turnovers Saturday, lacked poise against Blue Valley’s full-court defense.

“There was a bit of a letdown there for a while,” said LHS senior Bryan Cargill, who scored a game-high 18 points.

But the Lions, whose lead fell to 38-33 when Blue Valley’s Marshall Banks scored on a lay-in and was fouled, quickly refocused after McAnderson’s highlight drive and dish.

The Lions closed things out with eight free throws, despite Blue Valley stopping the clock anyway it could with timeouts and fouls.

A day after suffering its first setback of the year to Lee’s Summit (Mo.) North – which lost 67-58 to KC Sumner Academy in the championship – Lawrence (3-1) found another tough customer in Blue Valley.

“We had two straight games that provided great late-game situations that we were able to learn from,” LHS coach Chris Davis said. “From the start today we talked about getting going early in this third-place game.”

The Lions did.

Senior Brad Collier started the scoring with an emphatic dunk. By the end of the first quarter, Lawrence was ahead 13-9. The Lions increased their lead to 23-17 by halftime, outrebounded the Tigers 17-10 and possessed a hot hand from the field.

After shooting 26 percent on Friday, LHS connected on 10 of its first 21 shots and sank 46 percent on the night.

Blue Valley, however, struggled. The Tigers tallied just 24 percent in the first 16 minutes and misfired on all but one of their nine first-half three-point attempts. Blue Valley finished 1-of-19 from behind the arc.

“Although we didn’t get to the championship, we did a lot of things really well in this tournament,” Cargill said. “Now we know the intensity we have to play at this year.”