Lawrence high senior Haley Parker (25) tries to squeeze in between two defenders for a bucket. The Lions fell to Olathe North, 58-49, on Thursday at LHS.

Flat from the start, the Lawrence High girls basketball team watched an opportunity to pick up a season-high third straight victory slip away as it lost to Olathe North, 58-49, Thursday at LHS.

“They wanted to win more than we did,” LHS coach Nick Wood said. “That’s the way it seemed by how we played.”

Some credit had to go to Olathe North, which shot 75 percent in the first quarter and took a 16-11 lead into the second. To put things in perspective, the Eagles did not reach the 16-point mark until the end of the third quarter during LHS’s 46-31 victory against them on Jan. 8.

“They played differently than they did the last time we saw them,” said LHS senior Haley Parker, who led the Lions with 15 points. “Just the little things killed us.”

Little things like Olathe North layups and Lawrence High turnovers. For the game, the Eagles hit 17-of-32 shots, for 53 percent. All 17 makes were layups. To make matters worse, the Eagles connected on 24-of-25 free throws, which made it nearly impossible for the Lions to entertain the idea of a comeback.

Trailing 28-17, LHS closed the first half with a 5-0 run that cut the deficit to six. The Lions extended that run to an 11-1 margin in the third and with 2:12 to play in the quarter, LHS trailed 29-28. But Olathe North answered with more layups and free throws and the Eagles reclaimed a nine-point advantage — 40-31 — at the 5:41 mark in the fourth.

“There’s always going to be things you do wrong,” said LHS senior Shelby Miller, whose recovery and block after sprinting the length of the floor highlighted the night for the LHS defense. “But we just didn’t play like a team tonight, especially on defense. We could’ve rotated better and talked a lot more.”

Down nine with less than six minutes to play, the Lions began to heat up from the outside. Jordyn Tolefree (13 points) drained one of her three three-pointers on the night to pull LHS within 50-46 at 5:07. Cassie Potter (11 points) followed with back-to-back threes around the five-minute mark. Potter’s second trey tied the game at 42 but the Lions’ momentum was whisked away when Potter was injured on the play. Potter left the game with 4:51 to play and did not re-enter until 2:12 showed on the clock. At that point, the Lions were down six and in full scramble mode.

“Offensively, not having Cassie on the floor definitely hurt our flow,” Wood said. “But that’s when we needed other people to step up.”

While the Lions tossed up bricks in the final minutes, O-North iced the game by drilling 10 straight free throws in the final 1:33.

The loss dropped LHS to 7-10. The Lions again will take the court at 5:30 tonight at Olathe Northwest.

“It definitely stings because we thought we were figuring out who we are but, obviously, we’re still not sure,” Wood said. “But we can’t let this loss turn into two. We have to move on and we have to be ready to play against Olathe Northwest.”