With its one-time 17-point lead slashed down to two, the Lawrence High boys’ basketball team was in danger of getting upset in the first round of sub-state.

At least, until Clarence King put the team on his back.

King scored 11 of his game-high 19 points in the final three and a half minutes of LHS’ 64-55 win over Shawnee Mission Northwest. His final bucket — a layup with just seconds left on the clock — didn’t factor into the outcome, but the three big shots he hit before it absolutely did.

“I didn’t want to lose. I wanted to make it to the next round,” King said. “I was doing whatever it takes to get the ball in the basket.”

Some shots came easier than others.

With the Lions (12-9) clinging to a 4-point lead with less than four minutes to go, King rose up and buried his first 3 of the game. The Lions forced a miss and Brett Chapple (team-high nine rebounds) secured the board to get them the ball back.

King knocked down another 3 to push the advantage out to 10. Moments later, with LHS up 57-52, he drove to the hoop on the left side. King hung in the air, took contact from Northwest’s Logan Skeens and floated the ball up toward the basket.

The shot grazed off the backboard and fell through the net. King was swarmed in celebration by several of his teammates.

“Athletic, can make big shots,” said coach Mike Lewis, “that’s who he is.”

While King came up with some of the biggest shots of the game, early on, it looked as though the Lions might run their opponent out of the gym before he ever stepped foot on the floor.

The Lions blitzed the Cougars in the first quarter, jumping out to a 19-2 lead. LHS made eight of its first 11 shots, finishing the stretch on a 17-0 run.

The Cougars ended the run shortly after, but Selden quickly responded, cutting down the baseline and launching up for a vicious alley-oop dunk. Jake Rajewski sent a perfect lob over the top and Selden caught it, looking down into the rim as he threw down the one-handed slam.

“That was extreme. It hurt, too,” Selden said, shaking out his wrist with a smile. “I could’ve probably done a little else in the air, (too).”

Shawnee Mission Northwest cut the lead down to seven in the second quarter, but the Lions quickly pushed their advantage back out. After Chapple scored 4 points and grabbed four rebounds in the first quarter, it was the tandem of Zeke Mayo, Van Dave Jacob and King that sparked things in the second.

The trio scored all 15 of the Lions’ points in the period, save for a Savonni Shazor (9 points) free throw. That stretch came as part of a 15-5 spurt that pushed the lead back out to 17.

Jacob capped off the run by coming up with a loose ball and maintaining his dribble while rolling over a defender on the ground. He returned to his feet and sprinted down the floor, eventually finding King for an easy layup.

“All we had to do was just keep taking care of the ball,” King said. “We tried our best to maintain the lead.”

The Cougars made a charge in the third quarter, cutting the deficit down to single digits. Northwest’s George Specht (18 points, 4 for 5 from 3) began to knock down shots from the outside, and Verlee McCullough threw down an emphatic dunk over Selden.

“The crazy thing is, he was talking to me at the free-throw line,” Selden said. “He said to me, ‘Oh, that was a nice dunk. I’m going to get mine now.’ I was like, ‘All right, whatever.'”

?Selden returned to the bench with a smile — “I tend to go for everything, so that’s what I get,” he joked after the game — but before long, the advantage was down to 4, and then to 2 in the fourth quarter.

The Lions, though, had just enough down the stretch, setting up a showdown with Blue Valley North (three-seed) with a place at state on the line.?

“On the road Saturday will be tough,” said Lewis. “We just want to get to practice tomorrow, practice Friday, get prepared, stay healthy, I hope, and come out fighting.”

Shawnee Mission Northwest (55)

Dale Talley 3-9 0-0 8, Verlee McCullough 6-9 2-3 14, George Specht 7-11 0-4 18, C.C. Ghilardi 3-9 2-4 9, Luke Towler 0-1 0-0 0, Evan Higgins 1-1 0-0 2, Dylan Brunner 2-2 0-0 4, Logan Skeens 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-42 4-11 55.

Lawrence (64)

Anthony Selden 4-6 0-0 9, Brett Chapple 3-6 0-0 6, Trey Quartlebaum 3-11 0-1 8, Jake Rajewski 1-3 2-2 5, Savonni Shazor 2-2 5-8 9, Zeke Mayo 2-5 0-0 4, Clarence King 7-11 3-3 19, Van Dave Jacob 2-3 0-2 4, Steven Strickland 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-47 10-16 64.

SM Northwest 7 15 18 15 — 55

Lawrence 21 15 10 18 — 64

Three-point goals: SM Northwest 7-15 (Specht 4, Talley 2, Ghilardi 1); Lawrence 6-17 (Quartlebaum, King 2, Selden, Rajewski 1). Fouled out: none. Turnovers: SM Northwest 13 Lawrence 7.