Topeka ? Perhaps the large H and P on the floor of the Highland Park gymnasium stands for House of Pain.

For the Lawrence High boys basketball team, which lost, 66-64, to Topeka High (4-6) in the fifth-place game of the Topeka Invitational on Saturday, that’s exactly what the venue turned out to be.

Three games in three days, two losses, all of them decided in the final five seconds.

“I’m just exhausted,” LHS coach Chris Davis said. “And I’m sure the guys are, too. But I’ll tell you this much, they’re resilient.”

For starters, there was the two-point loss in the opening round, which came despite LHS leading by 15 points after one quarter. A day later, LHS again trekked through the mud uphill both ways for 32 minutes, only to be bailed out by a buzzer-beating three-pointer from senior Lance Kilburn in a 51-50 victory over Topeka West.

And Saturday, the Lions again fought through adversity from the opening tip only to see their chances to tie the game tipped away by the THS defense in the final seconds.

“Losing like that is hard,” junior Marcus Ray said. “After (the win against Topeka West), we all thought we were back on track, and we thought we’d come out here today and play hard and get another win.”

Offensively, the Lions got their usual output from seniors Dorian Green (28 points) and Kilburn (12 points, 15 rebounds). But it was a 12-point lift from Ray that nearly put the Lions over the top.