This was the nightmare from which Lawrence High’s girls basketball team almost didn’t wake up.

Topeka West frazzled the Lions with its zone defense, dictated the game’s tempo and held a two-point lead with less than a minute to go in Thursday’s opener of the Firebird Winter Classic at Free State.

But LHS escaped with a 49-42 overtime win — its ninth straight.

“We were lucky tonight,” Lions coach Kristin Mallory said. “We played without any intensity until the last four minutes. It should have cost us, but it didn’t.”

No. 2-seeded LHS (9-1) will play No. 3 Wichita North — which beat Topeka Highland Park 53-40 — in the semifinals at 7 p.m. today.

During Thursday’s LHS game, it seemed the Lions were more concerned with their possible semifinal matchup than with the Chargers (3-9).

“I think sometimes when you look at that other team’s record and see that they haven’t won that many games, you think ‘Oh, this won’t be that hard,'” said LHS junior Cherrale Ricks, who posted 10 points and 11 rebounds. “We need to get that out of our system.”

LHS averages more than 66 points a game, but was scoreless until Ricks hit a basket with 2:36 remaining in the first quarter. The score after one quarter was tied at 8, but only because junior Jodie Cochrane hit a three-pointer with 17 seconds left.

Lawrence High forward Cherrale Ricks shoots a fade-away over Topeka West defender Lindsey Ogden. The Lions won Thursday in overtime, 49-42.

Till then, LHS had made one of nine field goals, had five turnovers and hadn’t ran a single fast-break. This wasn’t what Mallory was used to seeing from her team.

“Some of it was them, some of it was us,” she said. “We were getting frustrated. They were beating us to loose balls and to rebounds. We weren’t hitting on the offensive end, we let them dictate the tempo of the game.”

The Lions led 25-20 at halftime, but only scored one point in the third quarter and entered the fourth down 27-26. The Chargers wore LHS down on both ends of the court, using at least 30 seconds for each offensive possession and stopping the LHS offense in the paint.

“We were playing as five individuals instead of as a team,” Ricks said.

Down 33-26 with five minutes remaining, LHS junior Josie Polk ended the Lions’ offensive drought with a three-pointer, and added another 40 seconds later. Till then, Polk, who leads LHS in scoring at 19 points a game, had hit just two of 11 shots. Cochrane hit a three with 2:26 left that gave LHS a 38-37 lead, but the two teams would trade baskets until the end of the fourth.

In the overtime, LHS finally became aggressive.

Lawrence High forward Rachael Klingler shoots a jumper in the lane over Topeka West defender Kris Marten. The Lions survived the Chargers, winning 49-42 in overtime.

The Lions held Topeka West to just four shots in OT, as Ricks and junior Rachael Klingler each grabbed three critical rebounds.

“It was especially important because of the situation,” Ricks said. “You have to get the rebound to start your offense. If you can’t do that, then we can’t make a run.”

Ricks scored four points in the overtime, and two Cochrane free throws with 20 seconds left sealed the win.

Not that Mallory enjoyed it. Even with three players in double figures — Polk had 13 and Cochrane had 11 to complement Ricks’ double-double — the Lions never looked in sync.

“I thought we would wake up after the halftime talk,” Mallory said. “I saw some fire in their eyes and we still didn’t pick it up.

“Lucky is about the best thing I can say about it.”