Midway through the third quarter Tuesday, Free State High senior point guard Kristian Rawls grabbed a steal and was all alone as he dribbled down the court.

Nobody would’ve blamed him if he finished with a layup, like he has all season. But on Senior Night, Rawls had something different in mind. He jumped up and punished the rim with a right-handed slam.

Rawls jogged back down the court with a smile on his face in an eventual 77-66 victory over Shawnee Mission West at FSHS. It was the first dunk of his varsity career and one of the most memorable ways to cap his Senior Night.

“My dad always tells me I need to dunk, and he said I had to tonight because it was Senior Night, so I was really looking forward to it,” said Rawls, who had 11 points and three steals.

The Firebirds (14-5, 7-3 in the Sunflower League) started all five of their seniors — Rawls, Chrision Wilburn, Drew Tochtrop, Hunter Gudde and Darian Lewis — and suddenly transformed into the Golden State Warriors.

In the first quarter, the Firebirds looked unstoppable. They shot 73 percent from the field (11-of-15) and failed to score on just three of their 16 possessions in the first eight minutes when racing to a 25-14 lead.

Lewis, who was in the starting lineup for the first time in his career, pounded the glass for rebounds and putbacks. Wilburn scored a layup-and-the-foul bucket before firing up the student section with a dunk on a pass from Gudde. He added another dunk in the final minute for the final exclamation point, and the crowd responded by chanting, “Thank you seniors.”

All of the seniors, minus Gudde who moved from Tennessee during high school, played together at West Middle School.

“It’s really cool because we’ve all pictured this and dreamt of it,” said Lewis, who had 14 points and a team-high seven rebounds.

At the beginning of the third quarter, with the seniors back on the court together, the Firebirds opened with a 7-0 run in the first 90 seconds.

Tochtrop, who scored six points, was the only senior who didn’t finish with a double-digit point total.

“It’s really cool,” Rawls said. “I think it’s something that we will all remember for a while. We were trying not to look forward to (Lawrence High) so it was good how we played.”

The only thing the Firebirds couldn’t avoid on senior night was playing the fourth quarter without a little drama.

After Tochtrop scored three straight points for a 16-point lead, the Vikings (6-13, 3-7) responded with a 7-0 run in just more than a minute behind two three-pointers from junior Isreal Watson. The Vikings never pulled any closer than eight points, but the Firebirds didn’t do themselves any favors with a few turnovers and missing the front end of one-and-one free throws.

“The start of the half and the start of the game, I thought we did a good job,” FSHS coach Sam Stroh said. “That’s what I told them after, I think that’s how we won the game. We need to work on finishing the game. We like to keep the crowd entertained for the last few minutes.”

Gudde scored a team-high 19 points and Wilburn added 13 points and four rebounds.

SHAWNEE MISSION WEST (66)

Jason Potter 1-2 4-8 7, Mike Hood 9-15 4-6 24, Cameron Southern 1-4 3-3 5, Derek Benson 1-2 0-0 3, Darrell Stewart 4-6 2-4 10, Isreal Watson 3-4 0-0 8, Zach Witters 1-8 4-6 6, Jack McMahon 0-1 0-0 0, Josh Clipston 1-4 0-0 3. Totals 21-46 17-27 66.

FREE STATE (77)

Kristian Rawls 5-5 1-4 11, Chrision Wilburn 6-10 1-1 13, Drew Tochtrop 2-3 2-4 6, Hunter Gudde 8-8 3-7 19, Darian Lewis 5-7 4-6 14, Jay Dineen 3-7 0-0 6, Sloan Thomsen 1-1 0-0 2, Jacob Pavlyak 2-4 0-0 4, Cameron Clark 0-0 0-0 0, Garrett Lunistra 0-3 2-2 2, Shannon Cordes 0-0 0-0 0, Simon McCaffrey 0-0 0-0 0, Jalan Robinson 0-0 0-0 0, Reece White-Downing 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 32-48 13-24 77.

SM West 13 14 13 21 — 66

Free State 25 14 16 22 — 77

Three-point goals: SM West 7-19 (Hood 2, Watson 2, Potter, Benson, Clipston); Free State 0-5. Turnovers: SM West 11, Free State 16.