The Lions show frustration in the closing minutes of their sub-state loss to Shawnee Mission West on Saturday.

Last season, the Lawrence High boys and girls basketball teams fed off of each other’s energy during a magical run to the Class 6A state title games.

Saturday, at Free State High, the opposite was realized.

One night after watching the LHS boys fall in heartbreaking fashion in their sub-state championship game, the Lawrence girls did the same, losing 50-41 to top-seeded Shawnee Mission West.

Like the boys, the LHS girls left their locker room dejected, disappointed and with tears rolling down their faces.

“If we were going to go to state, we wanted our boys to go with us,” LHS senior Taylor Bird said. “And watching them lose (Friday) night was hard. It just makes it so much better when we’re watching them play and win and they’re watching us play and win and everyone’s getting involved.”

Not having enough people involved Saturday wound up costing the LHS girls. But Bird was sensational from the start. The lone LHS senior in uniform scored eight first-quarter points and single-handedly kept the Lions in the game, scoring when she wanted and dishing assists when she drew the defense.

After one quarter, the Lions and Vikings were tied at 15, and Bird had eight points, six rebounds two assists and one steal.

“I thought it was going to be back and forth like that the whole way,” Bird said. “But when they got the lead and pulled away a little, we didn’t know where to go.”

So they didn’t.

LHS scored just nine points in the second and third quarters combined — compared with 22 for SMW — and entered the final quarter of their season trailing by 13 points.

But even that was not enough to make the Lions pack it in. Despite picking up just four SMW turnovers during the first three quarters, the Lions forced eight in the fourth quarter — many of them by ripping the ball from the Vikings’ hands — and staged a ferocious comeback attempt.

Bird regained her first-quarter form, scoring eight points in the fourth, and was tenacious in all areas of the court: rebounding, defending, sacrificing all that she had.

“At the end, we just played as hard as we could,” Bird said. “We gave all that we had. I guess we should’ve done that earlier.”

Bird’s teammates followed her, and the Lions turned a 40-30 deficit into a 43-38 contest with 1:48 to play.

“It’s exhausting to play like that, and we don’t have the depth to do it for an entire game,” LHS coach Kristin Mallory said. “But we showed a lot of guts down the stretch.”

The Lions’ came up empty on their last-ditch attempt to cut the lead to a single possession when Cassie Potter’s three-point attempt was blocked. After the block, West’s Lizzy Jeronimus scored a layup and free throw on the other end and pushed the Vikings’ lead to 46-38 with 59 seconds to play. The three-point play sent the Vikings’ bench into celebration mode, and the LHS girls were forced to face the reality that their season was over.

In her final game as a Lion, Bird led all scorers with 20 points. She also grabbed eight rebounds. Jeronimus led West with 18 points, and Heather Howard added 17 points and nine rebounds.

Just like that, Lawrence High’s basketball season was finished. Instead of trophies and smiles, the lasting image of this season will be tears and a heartfelt embrace of support between Mallory and boys coach Chris Davis before both exited the FSHS gymnasium.