It has been four days, but Kristin Mallory is still stewing.

Actually, Lawrence High’s girls basketball coach won’t get over the Lions’ season-ending loss Friday to Leavenworth in the Class 6A sub-state semifinals for months.

It’s not just the 44-42 overtime loss itself, but the fact it prevented LHS from its first state-tournament appearance since 1993.

“It will sit with me until we start the season next year,” Mallory said. “There have been a lot of positives this season, but we had our goals set so high, it’s difficult to look back and put a positive spin on it.”

Last season, when the Lions finished 9-13 and lost to Olathe East in the sub-state finals, the defeat was easier to accept.

This season, the Lions were 15-6, earned their most victories since ’93 and had a nine-game winning streak. Mallory didn’t expect it to end so quickly.

“Last year, we were enjoying the ride,” she said. “This year, we hadn’t expected it to be over yet.”

That speaks volumes about how far Mallory’s program has come. Two years ago, the Lions finished 3-18, the worst mark in LHS history. For this year’s seniors to exit with five times as many wins indicates the Lions could be building a team to be reckoned with.

“Obviously, we’re gonna miss the seniors,” Mallory said of guards Leigh DeBiasse, Shari Lassiter, Audrey Pope, Jenna Wilcox and Sam Birchfield. “But we do have the core of our starters returning. I feel very confident of where we will be next year.”

The Lions’ four leading scorers — juniors Josie Polk (16.7 ppg), Cherrale Ricks (11.4), Rachael Klingler (7.7) and sophomore Megan Klingler (6.5) — should pick up where they left off. Polk led LHS in scoring in 15 of 21 games, while Ricks made 55.2 percent of her shots and pulled down 7.5 rebounds a game.

But Mallory didn’t want to look ahead too quickly. She was proud of her team’s aggressiveness this season, and said some of the victories proved the Lions’ growing maturity.

“The win at Shawnee Mission East was pretty good, especially since I don’t think people really gave us credit for that. They ended up third in the league,” she said. “The game against St. Teresa’s was probably the best all-around game our kids played in the two years I’ve coached them.”

LHS boys

The Lions started the season 3-1 despite losing four starters from last season’s 18-5 state-tournament team. Yet after losing their fifth game of the year, 61-45, to Free State just before the holiday break, LHS (8-13) was plagued by an inability to string together solid games.

“We were consistently inconsistent,” LHS coach Chris Davis said. “I don’t think we had consistent anything game to game. That was one of the greatest challenges we faced as a coaching staff was to figure out the strategy we would use for each game.”

LHS never lost more than three straight games until season’s end, but never won more than two straight. After a season-high 84 points in a 22-point win Feb. 6 against Olathe East, the Lions had their lowest point total of the season in a 60-34 loss to Kansas City Wyandotte.

Part of the problem was losing four starters, including three leading scorers. When LHS struggled to find its chemistry and a regular playing rotation, it showed in its play.

“I think that was a big question mark about who was going to step into roles as far as scoring goes and as far as defense goes,” Davis said. “I really wasn’t sure when the year started what strategies we would use with the group of kids that we had.”

The lone returning starter, Brandon McAnderson, led LHS in scoring, averaging 9.7 points per game. The 6-foot senior, headed to Kansas University next season on a football scholarship, started slow after a grueling gridiron season but led LHS in scoring nine times.

Senior Bryan Cargill may have been the Lions’ most dangerous player. The 6-1 senior averaged 9.2 points and was one of the Sunflower League’s best shooters. He pumped in 28 points in a 71-69 victory against Shawnee Mission North and finished the season 50-of-112 from three-point range.

It’s the third-most threes in a season in school history and the best three-point shooting percentage. Unfortunately, Cargill was a marked man.

“The thing about the Sunflower League is we have great coaches,” Davis said. “When you have a pure shooter like Bryan Cargill, they’re gonna take him away.”

Next season, the Lions will rely on junior guards Taylor Parker (7.5 ppg) and David Freeman (6.9 in 16 games played) for their scoring punch. They were the only underclassmen to see significant time this season, but Davis said that might change.

It was Davis’ first sub-.500 mark in his third season as head coach. The record doesn’t bother him, but he hopes it’s the last time the Lions have that kind of finish.

“As far as wins and losses go, I thought that we would struggle, but I really thought we finished strong,” he said. “I wouldn’t think about it, but my thing is I don’t ever want a losing season to be acceptable at Lawrence High.”