Not often does Jack Schreiner find himself at a loss for words.
Schreiner is Free State High's boys basketball coach, and he was clearly baffled by the Firebirds' disjointed performance in Friday night's 50-38 loss to Olathe North.
"I don't know what to say," Schreiner uttered. "It's not much fun right now."
Free State shot 37.5 percent (15 of 40) from the floor, made fewer than half of its free throws (8 of 17) and committed 12 turnovers, but the numbers weren't what bothered Schreiner most.
"We made some poor decisions," he said. "We tried to make passes that weren't there. Very seldom did I feel comfortable with our offense."
Through three quarters, neither team showed much offensive prowess, then the Eagles shook the doldrums in the fourth quarter to turn a close game into a no-doubter. Free State missed seven of its eight fourth-quarter shots and scored only five points.
"I can't reiterate enough about our poor decisions," Schreiner said. "It looks like we don't work on those things, but we do."
Keith Wooden, a 6-foot-9 junior, led the Firebirds with 11 points six under his average. Wooden didn't have a basket in the second half.
Olathe North was able to counter Wooden's size with 6-foot-11 Tyler Hughes, but Wooden didn't think the Eagles' defense was the reason the Firebirds faltered offensively.
"It was us," Wooden said. "We're not playing together. We think we have a chance to be a pretty good team, but we have to play together and play harder."
In dipping to 2-4, the Firebirds displayed no outside punch. Free State's three-guard alignment of Neil Dougherty, Andron Cruse and Damian Harden combined for nine points. Dougherty, averaging 10.4 points a game, wore the collar.
"I told our guards to concentrate on penetrating," Schreiner said. "Maybe they thought that's all they were supposed to do."
Soph guard Dain Dillingham came off the bench to score 10 points.
Free State didn't have a single three-point goal, but neither did Olathe North. The Eagles, 5-1, received 14 points from 6-5 forward Gus Milner and 13 from Hughes. Olathe North shot 47.6 percent (20 of 42).
"Olathe North is the sleeper team of the Sunflower League," Schreiner said, "and people need to look out for them, but we scored only 38 points. We're a long way from being where we want to be."
Free State has another tough Olathe customer on tap. The Firebirds will travel to South next Tuesday.
In the junior varsity game, Mark Case scored 14 points, Collin Schmidt nine, and Cam Karlin had five blocked shots to pace the Firebirds to a 42-34 victory. Free State JV's record is 2-2.
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