When Free State senior point guard Kristian Rawls examined the floor in front of him, most of Tuesday night he saw Shawnee Mission South in its half-court zone. So Rawls knew what he needed to do. He and fellow senior Hunter Gudde spent most of the night waiting for gaps to appear. And when they did, the Firebirds pounced.

Rawls scored a game-high 19 points off drives to the paint and a pair of three-pointers, while also setting up his teammates for a fourth-quarter rally in Free State’s 53-47 home victory.

“Early on in the season we struggled with zone a lot, so we’ve been working on it a lot in practice,” Rawls said. “When we get into the paint, we can beat it.”

The Firebirds (12-4), ranked No. 9 in Class 6A, busted the zone with their bench late in the game. Down six points less than two minutes into the final period, backup senior forward Chrision Wilburn scored inside after retrieving a shot he had just got blocked. The next two FSHS baskets proved even bigger, as Rawls got into the teeth of the zone and substitute junior guard Shannon Cordes knocked down two three-pointers in a span of a couple of minutes, giving his team the lead for good at 42-40 with 3:07 to play.

“It’s definitely impressive,” Rawls said of Cordes’ nine-point fourth, which also included a drive for a three-point play in the final two minutes, “but we’re not surprised. We all have trust in Shannon. Our motto is strength in numbers. We just try to live up to that every game.”

Rawls drained a couple of free throws with 30 seconds to go (FSHS shot 9-for-12 at the line in the fourth) to go up 47-43. But the Firebirds’ lead had shrunk to two 10 seconds later, and Cordes missed a pair at the charity stripe.

That’s when junior Jay Dineen swooped in for an offensive rebound and hit two free throws, preventing SMS from tying the game or taking the lead.

“That’s what he’s in there to do,” Rawls said of Dineen, before describing the forward like the linebacker he is. “Just hustle and fly around. He always hustles. It was a huge play.”

First-year FSHS coach Sam Stroh agreed, and appreciated the way his players dug out of a six-point fourth-quarter hole, especially because his team came in on a two-game skid.

“I like the way we responded,” Stroh said. “With a tough week last week, we easily could’ve said ‘This is not our week,’ or ‘We’re in a bad stretch.’ But I liked the way we responded, hit some big shots. The bench was big to get us back in the game.”

Gudde scored 14 points in the win and single-handedly beat the SMS zone for four layups in the first quarter, as Free State built a 10-point lead. The Firebirds hit a bit of a lull in the third, but Rawls scored seven points in that quarter to keep his team within two entering the fourth.

“We were confident in ourselves,” Rawls said. “We just have a hard schedule at the end of the season, so we needed to get this win at home.”

SM SOUTH (47)

AJ Webster 6-8 4-4 16, Bailey Obersteadt 0-1 0-0 0, Sam King 3-3 0-0 6, Brady Anderson 3-8 4-4 12, CJ Hill 2-9 5-6 9, Jake Mankin 2-3 0-0 4, Ethan Iba 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 16-34 13-14 47.

FREE STATE (53)

Kristian Rawls 6-9 5-7 19, Jay Dinen 1-3 2-2 4, Jacob Pavlyak 0-1 0-0 0, Hunter Gudde 6-9 2-4 14, Cameron Clark 1-2 0-0 2, Sloan Thomsen 1-3 0-0 2, Chrision Wilburn 1-2 0-0 2, Shannon Cordes 3-6 1-3 9, Drew Tochtrop 0-0 0-0 0, Simon McCaffrey 0-0 0-0 0, Darian Lewis 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-36 10-16 53.

SM South 9 17 10 11 — 47

Free State 19 6 9 19 — 53

Three-point goals: SMS 2-10 (Anderson 2); FSHS 5-12 (Rawls 2, Cordes 2, Thomsen). Fouled out: SMS, King, Hill. Turnovers: SMS 7, FSHS 9.