Leavenworth ? Lawrence High boys basketball coach Chris Davis paused and took a deep breath. He then looked each and every one of his players in the eyes during a late timeout in their Class 6A sub-state title game Friday night at Leavenworth High.

The Lawrence coach calmly instructed his Lions that they were the ones — not Olathe North — who would be playing in next week’s state tournament.

Lawrence high players celebrate their Class 6A sub-state championship victory over Olathe North. The Lions defeated the Eagles, 45-41, on Friday night at Leavenworth to clinch a berth in next week's state tournament at Emporia's White Auditorium.

“We’re going to the state tournament, that’s what we’re doing,” Davis reassured his squad, which at the time led by nine points with 31/2 minutes to go.

Indeed, the Lions are returning to Emporia’s White Auditorium next week for the first time in three years. But only by the skin of their teeth, as Lawrence held off O-North, 45-41.

“It just feels unbelievable,” said Lions senior Larry Barber, who had a big night off the bench, scoring eight points as Lawrence improved to 15-7.

“We had a real bad taste in our mouth after how our season ended last year. So as a team at the beginning of the season, our No. 1 goal was to go to Emporia, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

Just barely, though.

A pesky O-North team, which already had advanced to the semifinals by pulling off this sub-state’s biggest shocker — a 33-27 victory over second-seeded O-South on Wednesday — stayed within striking distance of the Lions. During the fourth quarter, the seventh-seeded Eagles took advantage of Lawrence’s miscues.

“You have got to give Olathe North a lot of credit,” Davis said. “They made everything we tried to do extremely tough.”

6Sports video: Lions earn trip to state Photo Gallery: LHS vs. Olathe North LHS boys basketball schedules/stats

North used a similar slow-down attack to the one that worked so well against O-South. But trailing by double digits in the final minutes the Eagles (5-17) had to find some fire.

They did, thanks to a controversial technical foul call on LHS point guard Kristian Pope with 2:17 to go.

North’s Travis Dye stole the ball in the open court, but before he could get to the basket Pope stopped him with a foul that brought both players to the floor.

A referee whistled Pope for the “T” because he stood over Dye as they seemed to be exchanging words.

“I was trying to help him up, but I think the ref thought I was starting something because I still was straddling him,” said Pope, who scored seven points.

Dye nailed three of four from the stripe, and a three-pointer by North big man Brett Mowry cut the Lions’ lead to 32-37.

Lawrence High's Brennan Bechard (10) shoots against Olathe North. The Lions earned a trip to state with a 45-41 victory Friday in Leavenworth.

Lawrence did everything it could from the free-throw line to help out, as the Lions connected on only eight of their first 21 charities in the final quarter.

“Our hearts kind of sank a little,” said the Lions’ Tyler Knight, who led Lawrence with 11. “We knew we were still in control, but I think you could start to see the nerves of getting to state setting in.”

But not for North senior guard Doug Huston.

The long-range shooter buried a pair of very deep three-pointers to narrow North’s gap to 43-39 with 20 seconds left.

LHS senior Brennan Bechard — who along with the Lions’ David Freeman usually are the Lions best free-throw shooters, but Friday combined to hit just 1-of-6 from the line — missed a pair with 16 seconds to go.

North raced up the court and missed a three that would have cut the game to one, but a Mowry stick-back with two seconds left did shave the Eagles’ deficit to two while an O-North player went down with an injury.

The stoppage forced the Lions to inbound the ball, but North fouled Pope on the play, and this time he hit both.

“I guess we found a way to make them when we needed them the most,” Pope said with a smile.