With its top four scorers underclassmen, Lawrence High’s girls basketball team wasted little time thinking about the 2002-03 season following Saturday’s 50-39 loss to Olathe East in the Class 6A sub-state final.

“They seem to be real excited,” said first-year LHS coach Kristin Mallory, who guided the Lions to a 9-13 record and the program’s first sub-state final appearance since 1996. “The nice stretch we had the last month and a half left us with an excited feeling rather than a bad taste in our mouth.”

On the heels of the program’s worst season at 3-18, Mallory was unsure what to expect for her inaugural year with the Lions. LHS entered the Firebird Winter Classic in late January with a 3-8 record. LHS went 2-1 to place second at the tournament, falling in the final round to Hutchinson, a favorite to win this week’s 6A state tournament in Emporia.

Sophomore Cherrale Ricks, an all-tournament selection at the Firebird Winter Classic, averaged 7.9 points a game to rank second on the squad.

“We’re looking forward to next year,” Ricks said. “We’re going to miss our seniors. We’ve suffered a little loss because they’re leaving us, but we’re going to have some good people coming in.”

The Lions beat Sunflower League runner-up Leavenworth twice in the same week. LHS closed the regular season with a 51-48 victory over Leavenworth to spoil the Pioneers’ bid to share the league title and then ousted Leavenworth, 56-52, in the sub-state opener.

“You’re supposed to improve at the end of the year,” Ricks said. “From the beginning, the only place we had to go is up. We didn’t have anything to lose. We got better as the season went along.”

Leavenworth was the top seed at the four-team sub-state.

“We were excited we beat Leavenworth and thinking, ‘Gosh, we hope we play well in the final game and prove that we should be there,'” Mallory said. “When we played so well (against Olathe East), we felt we were 31*2 minutes from being where our guys are (at state in Emporia). That made it harder in some ways, but it’s better to play well. The better you play, the higher the expectations.”

Sophomore Josie Polk averaged 10.6 points a game to lead the Lions. Ricks, junior Leigh DeBiasse (7.6) and sophomore Rachael Klingler (7.5) followed Polk in scoring.

Close losses sink Free State

A year removed from qualifying for the 6A state tournament, Free State High was in rebuilding mode for 2001-02.

The Firebirds finished 6-15 with 10 losses decided by 10 points or less. Free State lost its final seven games, including a 61-41 loss to eventual state qualifier Topeka in the first round of sub-state.

“We hope some of those tough losses pay some dividends next year as we’ve gone through this learning curve,” fourth-year FSHS coach Craig Hershiser said. “We learned we could compete and play with some of the better teams. Next year we’ll take that extra step and get in the winners column against some of the same teams.”

FSHS will graduate three seniors  Stacie Garland, Julie Seidel and Lauren Wright  from the 2001-02 season.

“Our seniors modeled competitiveness and hard work all year,” Hershiser said. “Our younger kids should benefit from what Stacie, Julie and Lauren did for us this year.”

Lauren did plenty in her one year at Free State. The Topeka Hayden transfer averaged 12.1 points a game and made a school-record 47 three-pointers.

“That was the first time in school history where we had a pure shooter,” Hershiser said. “We’ve had some scorers before but not somebody who could step out and hit a jump shot like Lauren.”

Hershiser said his squad remained upbeat through the trying season.

“I thought our attitudes were great,” he said. “Up until the last practice and the last game the kids were still playing hard. The kids were going out and executing things we were working on in practice.”