A potent night of three-point shooting still couldn’t do the trick for the Lawrence High boys basketball team Friday night.

Not with Shawnee Mission West packing plenty of size for the trip to Lawrence.

The Vikings defeated Lawrence, 62-53, Friday, with 36 points coming from two guys taller than anybody on Lawrence High’s roster.

What’s a short team to do?

“It’s just difficult when you’re giving up that much size,” LHS coach Chris Davis said. “They’re pretty good, too. They’re talented big men.”

The Vikings’ 6-foot-8 senior, Hunter Henry, scored 29 points, while 6-7 junior Chris Balham added seven, two on a vicious first-half putback dunk.

Not even Lawrence’s scorching air attack had an answer to those two.

“They have three guys who had really long arms,” LHS senior Joe Crane said. “They were grabbing everything. It was hard to block out every single one of them.”

The Lions (5-15 overall, 2-9 Sunflower League play) countered with what has worked best for them this season — a lot of long-range shooting. They hit 13 three-pointers, giving them a season total of 210. One more three-pointer will tie the Kansas state record for treys in a season. Two more will put them in the state record books for the fourth time this year.

Lawrence high's Taylor Parker puts up a shot over Shawnee Mission West's Ryan Anderson, right, during second-half action. The Vikings clipped the Lions, 62-53, Friday night at Lawrence High.

LHS also has state records in threes made in a game (21), threes attempted in a game (59), and threes attempted in a season (696).

Crane was once again the main culprit, hitting four threes and finishing with 14 points. Junior Brennan Bechard (three), junior David Freeman (three) and sophomore Tyler Knight (two) also hit multiple treys.

“It lets us know that we still have something to fall back on,” said Crane, who’s hit 48 threes this season. “If we don’t have anything inside, we can still shoot threes. We’ve just got to get everyone going.”

SM West (11-9, 7-4) took a commanding 19-10 lead after one quarter, and it took until the fourth quarter for the Lions to erase the deficit. They finally did, when Crane hit a three-pointer with 7:49 to play in the game to tie the score at 39.

Later, Bechard hit a three from the corner to tie the score at 42. LHS never would take the lead, though, and SM West finished the game on a 20-11 run.

Regardless, Free State’s victory over Olathe North gave LHS a seven seed for next week’s Class 6A sub-state. Lawrence’s opponent will be none other than Free State, the second seed. The two teams will square off for the fourth time this season.

6Sports video: Lions fall to Vikings

“We feel pretty good about going into sub-states,” Davis said. “I think we played pretty well tonight. We just didn’t come up with the win.”

Lawrence High girls 47, SM West 45

Seems that 11-point lead the Lawrence High girls were enjoying at halftime just wasn’t nerve-racking enough for their liking.

So the Lions, in a process that’s becoming a painfully familiar, slipped in the second half yet hung on for the tense 47-45 victory Friday on Senior Night.

Lawrence High's Megan Klinger looks for an opening against Shawnee Mission West while Erin Knight (21) boxes out. The Lions beat the Vikings, 47-45, Friday night at LHS.

“It was a pretty ugly win,” senior Jodie Cochrane said, “but we’ll take it.”

The Vikings (11-9, 5-6) actually took a 45-44 lead with 1:23 to play in the game on a Holly Steffen basket, but Lawrence (13-7, 9-2) shut them out for the rest of the game. LHS took a 46-45 lead with 54 seconds to play on a Megan Klingler layup, then made it a two-point game with 16 seconds to play on a Cochrane free throw.

Both Klingler and Cochrane led the Lions with 11 points. Sophomore Sydney Wilson added eight big second-half points to help propel the Lions to the win.

With the victory, Lawrence clinched a second-place finish in the Sunflower League race behind Olathe East, which beat Olathe South Friday at home.

In addition, LHS will play host to a first-round sub-state game Wednesday against Topeka High. T-High beat LHS 76-66 Jan. 10 in Topeka.

“We’re excited to play them again,” Cochrane said. “I don’t think we were on our game the first time around.”