Overland Park ? The players on the Free State boys basketball team may have been the only high school students in Lawrence who were hoping to not have a snow day Wednesday.

Their Tuesday contest at Shawnee Mission West was delayed a day because of snowy weather, making the Firebirds even more eager to avenge Saturday’s home loss to Lawrence High.

The LHS loss now is in the rear-view mirror. The Firebirds punished the Vikings, 63-43.

“I really had no clue if we were going to have our game or not, because I didn’t even know if we were going to have school,” Free State guard Brady Morningstar said. “I’m glad we did, because I don’t like waiting.”

Free State showed early rust as SM West shot to a 13-5 lead. But then something clicked for the Firebirds, and a resulting 17-4 run was keyed by a Matt Green three-pointer and a series of scores by Morningstar, who tallied a game-high 20 points.

Aside from finding a way to score points, the turnaround came from Free State finding a way to slow down West’s 6-foot-8 Chris Balham.

Balham was able to gain inside position early, and his prowess on the offensive glass gave the Vikings plenty of second-chance points. In the second quarter, Free State’s physicality took its toll on Balham, and the smaller Firebirds were able to disrupt him and grab rebounds.

“We didn’t do a real good job early; we emphasized that,” Free State coach Jack Schreiner said. “I said. ‘I don’t even want you to box them out. I just want you to stand in front of him.'”

Once Balham was silenced, the Firebirds’ by-the-book attack in the third quarter put the game away.

Free State's Matt Green (33) drives against Shawnee Mission West's Aaron Linn in the Firebirds' 63-43 victory. FSHS won Wednesday in Overland Park.

After building a 34-27 halftime lead, Free State came out against SM West’s box-and-one defense. To retaliate, the Firebirds simply worked the ball near halfcourt, even holding it for a series of seconds, to pull the Vikings out of their zone. After that, the Firebirds strung together a series of lengthy possessions resulting in easy buckets.

“We go 20-30 seconds, maybe even longer, and we wind up getting a layup, and that really demoralizes them,” Schreiner said.

In the second half, the Firebirds looked like a team deserving of Class 6A’s No. 1 ranking. As the SM West defense keyed on Morningstar more and more, senior Sam Buhler took over, scoring nine of his 11 points.

Schreiner called his team’s effort a “sound” victory, and a few more of those could be what the Firebirds need to block Saturday’s loss out for good.

“Any time in the Sunflower League you can go on the road and get a win, it’s huge,” Buhler said. “We just got to start getting those, win out and forget about LHS.”