Sarah Craft knew she was the second option on the inbound play, but as Free State High teammate Lauren Kimball drew a double team in the post, Craft quickly became option No. 1.

Craft, a junior forward, received Kimball’s pass behind the three-point line in the left corner. She saw Hutchinson’s Torey Lyman sprinting toward her to contest the shot. After Craft’s release, Lyman’s momentum caused her to knock Craft to the floor.

As Craft looked up from the hardwood, she saw the ball drop straight through the net. The three-pointer was good, plus the foul.

Craft made the free throw. The junior forward’s four-point play helped Free State past Hutchinson, 49-36, in the third-place game of the Firebird Winter Classic on Saturday.

“I thought to myself, ‘We got it in the bag now,'” Craft said of her big play. “You could just feel our momentum go up. Their momentum just deflated.”

The first four-point play of Craft’s career was the nail in the coffin.

“That gave us the confidence, and after that, we had the momentum and were like, ‘We’re going to win,'” senior forward Kelsey Harrison said.

Hutchinson’s momentum actually started to dwindle toward the end of the first half when coach John Ontjes leaped out of his chair to argue a call that put Kimball on the foul line. He was slapped with a technical foul, and Kimball received four free throws total. She hit two of them, then drained a three-pointer on the ensuing possession, a five-point swing that gave Free State a two-point lead.

Free State High's Allie Hock, left, and Lauren Kimball try to force a steal from Hutchinson's Emile Blakesley. The Firebirds beat Hutch, 49-36, Saturday to place third in their own tournament. Story on page 4C.

Hutchinson, ranked No. 2 in the latest Kansas Basketball Coaches Assn. Class 5A poll, couldn’t regroup after halftime. The Firebirds outscored the Salthawks, 25-12, in the second half. Free State only pulled down four rebounds in the first half, but grabbed 17 in the second.

“We were a lot more aggressive in the second half,” Free State coach Bryan Duncan said. “I thought our perimeter defense allowed us to rebound the ball better in the second half as well.”

Hutchinson (9-3) frequently ran an offense centered around perimeter movement. The Salthawk guards would weave back and forth around the three-point line. Instead of Free State players chasing them all over the floor, they frequently switched defensive assignments, making it more difficult for Hutchinson to find openings toward the basket.

“Yesterday, when we watched them play Washburn Rural, we noticed they run a lot of the weave up top,” Craft said. “Coach Duncan said, ‘We need to switch on that.’ We’re all pretty much the same size, so we’re pretty interchangeable. Our posts did a great job of stepping up and taking away their guards.”

Offensively, Free State (8-5) went up against a half-court zone for the majority of the game. Harrison was the primary benefactor. The 5-foot-11 forward frequently floated along the baseline, exploiting flaws in the Hutchinson zone. She finished with a game-high 14 points – many via 15-foot baseline jumpers.

“The short corner was wide open,” Harrison said. “I really like baseline shots. When you go up against a 2-3 (zone), you need to try and drive to the basket, so I was trying to create some stuff and eventually kick out, or if it was there, just go up for it.”

Another offensive plus for Free State was Kimball, who played her most aggressive game of the tournament. The senior guard scored 14 points. She frequently penetrated to the basket and got to the free-throw line eight times. Kimball also pulled down five boards and dished out four assists.

“That was the best game she’s played in quite some time,” Duncan said. “She was very aggressive on offense, but patient. Early on, she had a couple of threes that were in the flow of the game. And then that allowed her eventually to get to the basket because they stepped out to defend her.”

Free State won’t play again until Friday, when it travels to Shawnee Mission South.