Lawrence High's Dorian Green drives the ball to the basket during the fourth quarter of Saturday's game against Ralston High at Blue Valley High School. Green scored a basket on the play, drew a foul and hit the free-throw to bring the Lions within five points.

Stillwell ? All’s well that ends well in Stillwell. Until a third quarter that ends not so swell.

A great start helped push Lawrence High’s boys basketball team to a 10-point third-quarter lead Saturday night against Ralston (Neb.) High. Four minutes later, a four-point deficit stood in its place. The Rams went on to deal the Lions a disappointing 73-65 defeat in the third-place game of the Blue Valley Shootout.

The suddenness of the run proved too much of a shock to the system for the Lions.

“We were never able to recover from it,” LHS coach Chris Davis said. “I mean, for whatever reason, it was like we got deer in the headlights for just a little bit, and we couldn’t break out of it.”

These teams met a year ago in the championship game of the same tournament. In that contest, LHS (2-2) lost and tallied just 39 points. Saturday, the Lions eclipsed that plateau with 4:46 left in the third quarter when Marcus Ray’s three-pointer from the corner handed LHS a 42-34 bulge.

The Lions’ next points came when point guard Dorian Green dished inside to center Michael Stanford for a layup with 3:59 remaining in the third. The score gave Lawrence its biggest lead of the game at 44-34.

“I really thought we were going to blow the game open right there,” Davis said.

To that point, Green had 12 points. But he wasn’t heard from again in the quarter, and neither were the rest of the Lions. Green struggled, in part because the Rams put 6-foot-6 Colorado State University basketball commit Greg Smith on him defensively.

Ralston closed the third quarter on a 14-0 spurt.