Lions girls’ season ends amid familiar woes

? The good news for the Lawrence High girls basketball team during Thursday’s sub-state loss to top-seeded Olathe South was that the first quarter had a familiar feel to it.

The bad news? It ended with the Lions trailing by 14 points.

Behind a dominant first-quarter that featured seven LHS turnovers and a 16-0 Olathe South run, the Falcons easily advanced to Saturday’s sub-state title game with a 47-32 victory.

“We knew coming in that our margin for error was very small,” LHS coach Nick Wood said. “We had a good game plan and I thought we executed well early, but we didn’t knock down shots. And when you do that against a team like that, it can put you in a bad spot.”

Digging an early hole was a common theme for the Lions (3-18) throughout the season but so, too, was the way the Lions went down. As was the case most nights, overmatched LHS played as if there were no scoreboard. They dove for loose balls, pushed back when they were challenged and scrapped for everything they got. Unfortunately, that wasn’t much.

“We’ve dealt with that all season,” said Anna Wright, one of four seniors who played their last high school games Thursday. “So it’s sort of become second nature for us to go hard. We just want to play every second that we’re out there.”

Olathe South sophomore Kylee Kopatich, who scored 16 points in a 43-15 win against LHS in January, had 15 in the first half of Thursday’s victory, including six straight in the first to get the Falcons soaring. Kopatich added 13 more in the third quarter to finish with a game-high 28.

“She’s good,” Wright said. “And it’s really hard to guard her because she can do it all.”

Behind Kopatich, who scored the first nine points of the third quarter, Olathe South (19-1) led 45-12 heading into the fourth. When a lead reaches 30 points or more after three quarters, Kansas State High School Activities Association rules call for the use of a running clock in the fourth. But the clock was not the only thing that ran from that point on. So did the Lions, who outscored South’s second-stringers 20-2 in the final quarter.

“That fourth quarter kind of defines our season,” Wood said. “There were plenty of times along the way where we could’ve packed it in and quit, but we always continued to fight. That’s who these girls are.”

Added Wright: “It was definitely a better feeling to finish the season on a good note like that.”

Junior Kionna Coleman led LHS with 13 points while junior Makayla Bell added six and senior Emma Kelly chipped in five.

Olathe South 47, Lawrence High girls 32

Lawrence High (32)

Bri Anderson 0-4 0-0 0, Emma Kelly 2-3 0-0 5, Kylie Seaman 0-2 2-4 2, Anna Wright 1-6 0-0 3, Kionna Coleman 5-11 3-5 13, Marissa Pope 0-5 3-3 3, Jolana Shield 0-3 0-0 0, Imani Simmons 0-1 0-0 0, Makayla Bell 2-3 2-4 6, Caroline Dykes 0-0 0-0 0, Alethia McKinney 0-0 0-0 0, Kennedy Dold 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 10-38 10-16 32.

Olathe South (47)

Sarah Finks 0-7 0-0 0, Riley White 1-4 2-2 5, Kylee Kopatich 9-11 7-8 26, Samantha Samskey 4-7 0-0 8, Jordan Morton 1-2 0-0 2, Zoe Matje 1-1 0-0 2, Courtney Jones 0-2 0-0 0, Brett Hollenbeck 0-1 0-2 0, Adrien Beaty 0-1 0-0 0, Kala Holder 0-0 0-0 0, Nyia Duncan 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 17-37 9-10 47.

Lawrence 2 4 6 20 — 32

Olathe South 16 14 15 2 — 47

Three-point goals: LHS 2-12 (Wright, Kelly 1 each) OS 4-12 (Kopatich 3, White 1). Turnovers: LHS 21, OS 17.