Prairie Village ? Few coaches would be happy about a loss, but Free State High boys basketball coach Chuck Law was all smiles following the Firebirds’ 63-42 defeat Friday night against Shawnee Mission East.

“We talked about building off of this and using this as a positive,” Law said. “Because we competed extremely well. And I could not be more proud of how we competed in the face of getting down 18 or 20 points in the third quarter.

“We kept battling. But still, the name of the game is putting the ball in the basket.”

FSHS definitely didn’t roll over. The Firebirds cut the Lancer lead to 12 points in the fourth quarter but couldn’t put together a big run, partly because of inefficiency under the basket. Free State’s big men, Christian Ballard and Ben Wilson, combined for nine points and 10 rebounds.

“I think that was just a learning experience,” said Ballard, who had three points and a team-high six boards. “We’ll get that down. But right now, we’ve just got to work with our guards in practice. It’s just going to take a little repetition to get better.

“We’re really young right now, but I think we’re going to get it done real soon, and we’ll look real good.”

Law said the youth of his post players caused the inconsistent play.

“We had a difficult time putting the ball in the basket tonight,” Law said. “When we got it in there, we were a little antsy, because we were afraid they were going to block our shots.

“We also had a lot of really nice perimeter looks, too, and just didn’t knock them down.”

The Firebirds only made two of 13 three-point attempts.

“We kind of got down a little bit, but we rallied back up,” said Kyle Schreiner, who had a team-high 12 points and one of Free State’s three-pointers. “We tried to talk at halftime about coming back with it, and I think we really did.

“They still came out with (the win). But I think we really showed that we’re mentally tough, and that we can really overcome adversity.”