Kansas City, Mo ? Freshman Kirk Long scored 23 points and sophomore Mark Randtke 20 in Veritas Christian School’s 76-65 loss to Kansas City East Christian School Saturday night in varsity basketball.

Junior Matt Steinle contributed 10 for Veritas, which battled back from a 16-point deficit to lead by three in the final quarter.

Long hit three three-pointers, while Randtke had eight rebounds, and Casey Woods dished out six assists.

“We’ve had a lot of close games, but we’ve not been on the winning end,” Veritas coach Doug Bennett said. “We are young and sometimes it shows late in games when it gets physical. We are right where we need to be at this point.

“Kirk was on fire in that spurt where we caught up. Matt Steinle is coming into his own. He’s helped us a couple different crunch times.”

Kris Copp erupted for 39 points for the winners.