Free State senior Jacob Pavlyak (20) attempts a jump shot over Blue Valley West's Logan Elfstrand (42) on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2016 at FSHS.

One trait that every good basketball team seems to have is the ability to close out a game.

That particular calling card is something the Free State boys basketball team has still yet to learn. For the second straight contest, FSHS (1-1) struggled down the stretch, and this time it led to a 53-49 loss to Blue Valley West.

“I feel like sometimes we play not to lose rather than playing to win,” senior Jay Dineen said. “We need to start playing to win. Most of the games, even on Saturday, we are content with the lead and they came back on us. When we get the lead we need to step on their throat.”

After narrowly escaping with a three-point victory over Barstow — despite leading by double digits in the final period — the Firebirds surrendered 22 fourth-quarter points to the Jaguars in Tuesday’s home opener defeat.

But the two late-game lapses early in the year, may just be the very thing this team needs to open the season.

“We on purpose made our schedule tougher than we did last year,” coach Sam Stroh said. “To help prepare us for teams like this. And that’s what I told them, we have to learn from it and move on. We are going to play another good team on Friday.”

With 7:37 to go in the fourth quarter, junior Simon McCaffrey bottomed a jumper to take a 32-31 lead. It was Free State’s first advantage in the game since the 5:37 mark in the opening quarter, when the team led 6-5, before surrendering a 11-0 run to the opposition.

And much like the early lead, the fourth-quarter advantage would be short lived.

The Jaguars scored five points on the next three possessions to reclaim the lead. Then after trading a a few baskets, Blue Valley West went on a decisive 10-0 run to take a double digit lead with less than three minutes and never look back.

“We didn’t perform well at all,” Dineen said. “We had a lot of turnovers that they didn’t even cause. Then they had like 15 layups on us, which is unacceptable. We can’t give them free layups.”

Though the defense was lackluster in the final period, the offense was resilient. Dineen netted seven of his team-high 11 points in the fourth quarter.

As a team, Free State scored 18 points on 7 of 14 shooting in the fourth quarter, which featured six different players. Junior Jalan Robinson and seniors Sloan Thomsen, Jacob Pavlyak and Cameron Clark, all were involved on the offensive end along with McCaffrey and Dineen.

In fact, the only other period where FSHS recorded double-digit points was the second quarter, in its 14-point outburst, to cut into the early deficit. Clark scored six of his eight points during that frame in a matter of four possessions.

“When Cameron gets inside and gets some touches, he does pretty well,” Stroh said. “We are going to watch the film and watch the good, but we also need to figure out what else we need to work on.”

Free State will travel to Mill Valley at 7 p.m. Friday.

Blue Valley West (53)

Keaton Goodale 2-4 0-2 4, Trey Lucas 7-13 2-3 16, Josh Lane 1-3 0-0 2, Mikey Chalupa 4-7 5-6 15, Logan Elfstrand 3-7 1-1 7, Caleb Jones 3-3 3-6 9, Chris Nordstrom 0-1 0-0 0.Totals: 20-38 11-18.

Free State (49)

Simon McCaffrey 2-2 0-0 5, Jay Dineen 3-11 5-5 11, Sloan Thomsen 2-6 0-0 4, Jacob Pavlyak 3-11 0-2 7, Shannon Cordes 3-8 0-0 6, Cameron Clark 4-7 0-0 8, Jalan Robinson 2-4 3-3 7. Totals 19-49 8-10 49.

Blue Valley West 16 9 6 22 — 53

Free State 9 14 7 18 — 49

Three-point goals: BV 2-4 (Chalupa 2); FS 2-13 (McCaffrey, Pavlyak ). Turnovers: BV 14, FS 12. Fouled out: Lucas, Eldstrand.