Lions teammates' hands come together to raise their trophy Friday, Feb. 29, 2008 after their 39-34 sub-state victory over Olathe Northwest High.

Reaching the state tournament was more than just a lofty goal for Lawrence High’s girls basketball team this season. It had been an expectation for more than three months.

Now, it’s a reality.

Friday night, No. 2 seed Lawrence gritted out a 39-34 victory against No. 3 Olathe Northwest on the Lions’ home floor to claim the sub-state championship players had coveted all year.

LHS never had made state in coach Kristin Mallory’s seven-year tenure. In fact, it had been 15 years since the Lions last advanced out of their sub-state bracket. But this year’s team carried a different swagger that made it hard to ignore on the court.

“This is a special moment for them and a special moment for me,” Mallory said. “We’re glad to finally get over the hump and get there, and we’re hoping to be there quite often in the future.”

Lawrence (18-4), which steamrolled through most of its opponents during the regular season, realized early in Friday’s contest that the Ravens (13-9) wouldn’t be put down easily.

After establishing a 7-2 lead just 21â2 minutes into the game, the Lions failed to score the rest of the quarter and found themselves trailing 11-7.

“They could’ve folded because they weren’t playing well, and I think at one point in the season, they might have,” Mallory said. “But they found a way to do it together.”

Senior Danielle Bird buried a three-pointer to open the second quarter, which seemed to ease the tension the Lions were experiencing.

“I think it was just like the excitement,” Bird said of her team’s shaky start. “This was the game qualifying us to go to state. We were nervous and excited and wanted to just play really hard.”

Bird’s jumper with 3:46 left in the second quarter gave LHS the lead back at 16-14, and forward Tania Jackson followed that up with a three-point play under the hoop to put the Lions ahead by five.

The Ravens twice cut the lead to one point, but LHS showed why it deserved a spot among the final eight teams in Class 6A, fending off Northwest’s two towers – sisters Alexis and Candace Boeh – when it mattered most. Lawrence’s Jasmyn Turner stripped Alexis Boeh of the ball in the final 30 seconds to help seal the win.

Danielle Bird led all scorers with 13 points. Jackson added 11, and Taylor Bird scored six.

The game marked the fewest points LHS had scored this year since winning the opening contest of the season against Washburn Rural – one of four teams headed to state that Lawrence already has played. Friday, LHS shot just 14-for-44 (31.8 percent). It wasn’t the run-and-gun style the Lions have become accustomed to, but it was exactly the way games at the state tournament likely will be decided.

“Words can’t describe how happy I am right now,” Jackson said afterward. “I don’t care what our score was, as long as we got the W. I’m glad it was tough.”

When the final seconds ticked off the clock, the postgame scene was unusually subdued for a group of Lions that had just won the biggest game of their high school careers. The players’ biggest celebration was joining the student section in singing the school song.

Perhaps that’s because the Lions know there is plenty more work to be done.

“We always talk about making it to state and then winning state, but we don’t talk about in between,” guard Haley Parker said. “We want to go as far as we can.”