Free State High girls basketball coach Bryan Duncan knows the deck is stacked against his Firebirds in tonight’s 5 p.m. sub-state championship game at Lawrence High.

For starters, the fifth-seeded Firebirds (9-12) are playing top-seeded Olathe South, which enters the game at 19-2, fresh off a 60-22, round-one annihilation of Shawnee Mission Northwest. In addition, South returns the bulk of its roster from last year’s Class 6A state runner-up and hits the floor with the knowledge that it plastered Free State, 50-24, in mid-January.

However, rather than fearing his team’s underdog role, Duncan has chosen to embrace it and plans to play nose-to-nose with the Falcons for 32 minutes.

“We still honestly believe we’re a very good basketball team,” Duncan said. “We’re going to go out and play the game and give it all we’ve got. We know our task is difficult, but it should be difficult to get to the state tournament.”

His players believe the same.

“I like the challenge,” sophomore guard Wren Wiebe said. “I like being the underdog. We’ve got nothing to lose and just have to go out there and give it all we’ve got.”

On offense, the Falcons can score from any position on the floor. Defensively, O-South uses its press to get easy buckets. Duncan said the key will be how well his team keeps its cool. But just because there’s a trip to the state tournament on the line doesn’t mean Free State plans to change the way it plays.

“We’re not going to take that approach at all,” said Duncan, asked if he might try to slow the tempo to keep things close. “We’re prepared to show up and play.”

Duncan knows that because of what he saw from his team Wednesday night in Olathe. Free State jumped out on Olathe East early and enjoyed a 19-9 halftime advantage. But it wasn’t how the Firebirds started that impressed their coach, rather how they finished. After falling behind by three points late in the third quarter, FSHS roared to a 17-point fourth quarter to win, 38-30.

“That’s the most resilient our team has been all year,” Duncan said. “And I think we can build on that. They got some confidence from that win, and funny things happen when you get a little confidence. Now we just have to go out and make it happen. We can’t just hope that it happens.”