Olathe ? Ghostly images and bad memories raced through Chris Davis’ head as he watched Olathe East throw up a last-second, desperation shot that would have stolen victory from Lawrence High on Friday night at Olathe East.

Two years ago, Davis, Lawrence High’s boys basketball coach, watched the Hawks beat the Lions on a similar buzzer-beater, and he was expecting the worst Friday.

“Olathe East and us have unbelievably close games in this gym every time we play,” Davis said. “As I was watching (the shot), I was going, ‘No. Please, no.'”

This time, however, Olathe East senior Ryan Benson’s heave fell just short, and the Lions escaped with a 58-57 victory.

The Hawks put up the nearly half-court shot after Benson intercepted a Lion’s inbound pass with 1.5 seconds remaining.

Olathe East could have tried for a three-pointer on its previous possession, but Benson decided to shoot a lay-up after grabbing a rebound rather than passing out for a three-point shot.

As the buzzer sounded, Lawrence High players poured onto the court to celebrate the victory with their fans.

“Tonight’s game was the first night in a while that we’ve stood up and stuck out our chest a little bit,” Davis said.

Though the game went down to the final possession, Lawrence High took control of the contest as the first half expired.

Up 30-27 with three minutes remaining in the first half, the Hawks decided to play stall ball and take the last shot of the half.

Davis allowed the Hawks to attempt their strategy, because two Lions were in foul trouble and he, too, was ready to call it a half down three points.

He also thought Olathe East would have trouble scoring after standing around for so long.

• LHS lions battle Olathe East

The move couldn’t have worked out any better for the Lions.

Olathe East finally started working for a shot with about 30 seconds remaining, but missed the front end of a 1-and-1 free throw to give the ball to Lawrence High.

Junior John Novotny then hit two free throws to pull the Lions within one on their ensuing possession. Olathe East frantically tried to push the ball up court, but LHS forced a turnover, and junior Chance Riley banked in a three-point shot to close the half.

“We got hyped right there,” Riley said. “Going up before the half gave us all the momentum. When we got up, we were celebrating all the way to the locker room.”

Lawrence girls 49 Olathe East 46

After holding Olathe East senior standout Erica Smith to eight points and holding a lead throughout much of Friday’s game, the LHS girls needed one last good possession to hold off the Hawks.

With 14 seconds remaining, the Lions were inbounding the ball underneath their own basket while clinging to a 47-46 lead.

Lawrence High’s goal was to eat time and widen its lead to three points, so even if Olathe East hit a last-second three-pointer the game would go to overtime.

The Lions got just what they were looking for.

After several passes, eight seconds had run off the clock, and senior Drew Huff found herself with the ball at midcourt being fouled.

The game, and the opportunity for the Lions to avenge a loss to the Hawks in last year’s playoffs, was on her shoulders.

Huff calmly stepped to the free-throw line and made both shots. The two clutch free throws gave her 18 points the day.

“She was awesome,” LHS coach Kristin Mallory said. “I reminded her before she went and shot that this was payback for last year. She did a great job in hitting those.”

Huff said she never had any doubts.

“I knew this was my senior year, and I had to knock them down for my team,” Huff said. “I was real confident.”

Olathe East put together a desperation drive down-court, but Lawrence blocked a futile two-point attempt to preserve the victory.

“This was a big win,” Mallory said. “They beat us last year to go to state, and we were ahead the whole game last year, but they came back at the very end. For our girls to step up and not let that happen again : wow, it was very satisfying.”