Lawrence High senior Baba Diallo (24) pulls in a rebound in this file photo. Diallo is playing Div. I basketball for Centenary.

LHS guard Dorian Green (22) goes up between Ralston defenders Curtis Thompson, left, and Dwight Smith, second from right. Ralston pressured Green defensively in its victory against the Lions on Saturday in Stilwell. At right is LHS senior John Schneider.

LHS senior John Schneider pulls down a rebound Saturday, Dec. 8, 2007 during the Lions' 50-39 loss to Ralston (Neb.) High School at the Boys' Basketball Blue Valley Shootout.

STILWELL ? Saturday night’s boys basketball championship game at the Blue Valley Shootout between Lawrence High and Ralston (Neb.) High had a big-game feel to it on the court despite very little fanfare.

With the home fan base cleared out following Blue Valley High’s third-place game, a visiting team from 200 miles away, icy road conditions and a winter formal taking place at LHS, attendance was sparse.

Those who were absent missed a good one.

LHS hung with the Rams – a top-10 team in Nebraska’s biggest high school class – until the last minute before succumbing, 50-39.

“We had said before the game, and really before the tournament, that we knew Ralston was going to be a really salty team,” LHS coach Chris Davis said. “Our defense did really well. We just had some breakdowns because we wanted to win. Our guys were playing with their hearts a little bit and not their heads, and that hurt us.”

Lawrence held Ralston (6-0) 22 points below its season average, frustrating the Rams with a zone defense that forced them to pass the ball around the perimeter for minutes at a time.

Early on, though, it looked like the Rams were primed to run away with the game, taking a 13-2 lead in the first six minutes. Thanks to a full-court press that face-guarded and double-teamed the Lions’ best ball handler, Dorian Green, LHS had nearly as many turnovers in the first half (eight) as it did in the entire game the night before (nine).

“It was pretty frustrating,” Green said of the constant harassment he faced. “I wanted to get the ball to my teammates, and it wasn’t happening.”

Said Davis, “I was telling the guys, that’s one of the things we’ve got to get better at dealing with, because we’re going to get that done to us. The only way you get better at it is to actually get put to the test. I felt like as the game went on, we did get better with it.”

LHS (3-1) managed to adjust, rallying late in the second quarter to take its first lead since the opening seconds on Bobby Davis’ 3-pointer from the top of the key. In the third quarter, the Lions twice pushed their lead to four points. Bobby Davis hit two free throws to start the half, and Lance Kilburn buried a 3 to put Lawrence up 32-28 with 39 seconds left in the third.

Few shots went in for the Lions after that.

Ralston showed why it is considered a top team in Nebraska by stepping up its defensive pressure and limiting the Lions to two field goals in the fourth quarter: a Baba Diallo layup and a Kilburn tip-in when it was too late.

“It was really physical,” Lawrence’s Bobby Davis said. “Every time you got the ball, they were right up in you. If you didn’t go into them, the refs were going to let it go.”

Offensively, the Rams finally attacked LHS’s zone, hitting four field goals as part of an 11-2 run in the fourth quarter.

And when the Lions resorted to fouling, Ralston made its last eight free-throw attempts, putting the game out of reach for LHS.

Green paced Lawrence with 11 points, followed by Kilburn’s 10 and Bobby Davis’ seven. Curtis Thompson led Ralston with 16 points.

Despite the loss, Chris Davis said this was the type of game that would come in handy come playoff time.

“It’s early in the season, and it’s really not about how you do now, it’s about how you’re doing in January and February,” he said. “I think that this gets us in the right frame of mind.”