Olathe ? Free State High’s girls basketball team didn’t want to call its season finale against Olathe East a moral victory.

The Firebirds wanted nothing to do with that cliche. They wanted desperately to knock off the second-seeded Hawks (16-5) on their home court and put an exclamation mark on the end of what has been a bittersweet season.

Free State (8-13) came oh-so-close to making its dreams a reality before eventually falling to the Hawks, 49-41, Wednesday night.

Afterward, the moral-victory title didn’t sound so bad to FSHS coach Bryan Duncan, whose team played by far its best game of the year against the same East team that beat FSHS by 24 points six weeks ago.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been as proud of this team as I am tonight, and we lost,” Duncan said. “We’re not playing Friday night, but we were winners tonight. We gave what I consider one of the top four or five teams in the state one heck of a run for their money. They’ve got a great team, but I think they know who Free State is now.”

O-East advanced to play Olathe South Friday in the sub-state finals at O-South, but for most of Wednesday night it looked as though the Firebirds would be making the trip to the finals.

Free State fell behind 9-5 in the opening minutes before switching to a zone defense that baffled the Hawks for most of the first half. The Firebirds closed the quarter on a 5-0 run and took the lead on senior Jenny Gwaltney’s 10-foot jumper.

“We came out with the attitude that we were going to win every quarter of this game,” Gwaltney said. “We won the first quarter and fell just a little bit short in the others.”

Free State opened the second quarter with six straight turnovers and fell behind by six, but its defense kept the Firebirds in striking distance. Wallis Romzek nailed a three-pointer, Jamie Stanclift muscled in another bucket, and Gwaltney and Kirby Beneventi nailed free throws that put the Firebirds within one at halftime.

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FSHS forged a 23-20 lead two minutes into the third quarter, but a five-minute drought halted its momentum. Meanwhile, O-East had an 11-0 surge and took the lead for good. O-East sophomore Danielle McCray scored six of her game-high 22 points during that stretch.

Despite falling short, Free State never quit.

The pesky Firebirds were four points behind with less than four minutes to go before slipping away.

Stanclift led FSHS with 19 points and nine rebounds. Gwaltney added 10 points and seven boards.

There were plenty of teary eyes as the Firebirds left the locker room, but heads were held high. Duncan said there was a good reason for that.

“To see that kind of desire from a team that was 8-12 and coming in as the underdog, you saw it as we came out on the court tonight that we expected to win,” Duncan said. “And we are disappointed, but at the same time we can certainly live with what happened based on our performance.”