With turnovers, rebounds and scuffles, the only things missing from the Free State basketball teams’ home games against Olathe East on Tuesday were FSHS victories.

The Firebird girls tried their hand first against the Hawks at Free State, coming up short, 49-41, against one of Kansas’ top teams.

“I thought we defended very well tonight – we battled,” Free State coach Bryan Duncan said. “We just had a hard time scoring.”

FSHS (4-4 overall, 1-2 Sunflower League) also had a hard time controlling the ball. The Firebirds turned it over 38 times and forced just 15 turnovers.

“Right now, we’re going about three quarters only, so we need to stay focused throughout the game and for the whole fourth quarter,” said Free State’s Lauren Kimball, who led the team with 15 points. “We had a couple of mental lapses that can’t happen, especially to teams like this.”

Banaka Okwuone ripped down half of Free State’s rebounds for a game-high 16 boards. Her effort helped FSHS outrebound O-East, 32-26.

“They’ve got a D-1 player, they’ve got (Morgan) Boyd who’s 6-feet, and we just knew we had to play some good defense,” Okwuone said. “And I knew I needed to get on the boards because there’s definitely some offensive rebounders, so that’s why I kind of stepped it up a little bit.”

While Duncan said he was happy with the performance of his girls, he said he wasn’t happy with the result.

“We expected to win tonight,” Duncan said. “Playing a top team … close, that’s not good enough for us. We’re very disappointed, so there is no motivation at all for that.”

Olathe East boys 55, Free State 38

Free State’s boys also were suffering from mental lapses. After being up by as much as eight points in the first-half, FSHS (3-5, 1-2) took only a one-point lead into halftime. That came back to bite the Firebirds, as Olathe East went on an 11-0 run to start the second half.

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“Poor halftime speech, obviously,” Free State coach Chuck Law said. “They were a team that was struggling coming into this game, and we knew that if we were going to get this done we had to get on them early. And we had opportunities to do that and didn’t take advantage of that.

“They’re a good basketball team. They just needed some confidence, and they got that confidence in the first half. And we didn’t do what was necessary to perhaps put them away, and as a result they came out with a lot of energy in the second half and played like the team they’re capable of being. As soon as it got tough for our guys, unfortunately we packed it in and didn’t fight through any adversity we faced.”

The lack of intensity by FSHS in the second half led to 12 of the Firebirds’ 21 turnovers. The Firebirds forced only three turnovers by the Hawks after they had turned it over nine times in the first two quarters.

However, just like their female counterparts, Free State’s boys outrebounded the Hawks, 32-25.

But the frustration of the Firebirds finally hit its peak in the fourth quarter when there was a scuffle as both teams were going after a loose ball.

FSHS junior Christian Ballard came out of the battle for the ball with a technical foul and, after sharing some words with the referee, was given his second technical and ejected.

“Once we got that double technical, that just made things a lot worse,” said Brian Murphy, who finished with 10 points. “But I think just a lot of people didn’t come with very much heart, very much desire this game. Since they were a 2-5 team, we thought we were just going to come in today and just roll right through them, which that wasn’t the case.”