Shawnee ? The last time Lawrence High girls basketball coach Jeff Dickson returned to his old stomping grounds to coach the Lions against Shawnee Mission Northwest, he watched the Cougars jump to a 13-point lead in the first quarter to clinch a trip to the state tournament last season.

Dickson’s Lions were a much tougher test for the Cougars on Tuesday night at SM Northwest, but fell short against the No. 3-ranked team in Class 6A, 54-42.

The Lions (7-8 overall, 1-5 in the Sunflower League) hung with the Cougars in the first quarter this go-around thanks to 6-foot-3 freshman Chisom Ajekwu starting out 3-for-4 from the floor.

“She was really good tonight,” junior Olivia Lemus said of Ajekwu. “She followed up with her shots and kept going up strong.”

Ajekwu led the Lions to an 11-10 advantage before SM Northwest junior Emmalee Rose knocked down a three-pointer in the closing seconds of the first quarter. The momentum of the buzzer-beating trey carried over into the second quarter for the Cougars, as it marked the beginning of a 15-0 run. Ajekwu ended the Lions’ drought with a bucket at the 1:40 mark of the second quarter, but the Cougars built a 28-16 advantage going into the half.

The Lions did not let history repeat itself from last March, though. The Cougars went on to rout the Lions, 46-23, in the sub-state final last season, but Lemus made it clear at the beginning of the third quarter that a victory for SM Northwest would not be as easy on Tuesday. Lemus drained three three-pointers, and sophomore Talima Harjo added another as the Lions put together a 12-4 run to open the second half and cut SM Northwest’s lead to 32-28.

“It feels really good, and I know it helps the team kind of flow, too. Talima hit a shot that helped, too,” Lemus, who led the Lions with 15 points, said. “It just gets a flame sparked in us to get going.”

The spark was not quite enough, though, to ignite the Lions into the win column.

Ajekwu continued to battle underneath — scoring six of her 14 points in the fourth. The freshman forward cut SM Northwest’s lead to 46-42 with 2:24 remaining, but the Cougars (13-2 overall, 4-2 in the Sunflower League) closed the game on an 8-0 run to put the Lions away.

The Lions will try to get back to .500 when they play at Olathe Northwest at 5:30 p.m. Friday.

LAWRENCE (42)

Hannah Stewart 1-9 0-0 3, Olivia Lemus 5-10 1-2 15, Talima Harjo 2-6 0-0 5, E’lease Stafford 2-9 0-0 5, Chisom Ajekwu 7-9 0-1 14, Leslie Ostronic 0-0 0-0 0, Alexis Boyd 0-1 0-0 0, Emma Bentzinger 0-2 0-0 0, Gracie Reinsch 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-46 1-3 42.

SM NORTHWEST (54)

Gena Ojeda 0-0 0-0 0, Shelbie McLain 3-4 3-3 10, Emmalee Rose 3-3 0-0 8, Melissa Schmidt 0-1 1-2 1, Jordann Nachbar 3-9 0-0 6, Danielle Rehor 6-10 3-3 17, Brenni Rose 5-17 1-1 12, Carson Vielhauer 0-0 0-0 0, Rachel Seibold 0-0 0-0 0, Hannah Black 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-44 8-9 54.

Lawrence 11 5 14 12 — 42

SM Northwest 13 15 10 16 — 54

Three-point goals: SMNW 6-11 (Rehor 2, Emmalee Rose 2, Brenni Rose, Shelbie McLain); LHS 7-22 (Lemus 4, Stafford, Stewart, Harjo). Turnovers: SMNW 6, LHS 11.