The Firebirds' bench celebrates after Chrision Wilburn, right, put in the winning shot at the buzzer to beat Junction City,54-52, Thursday in the opening round of sub-state.

There was a court-storming Thursday night at Free State High, but it ended nearly as quickly as it began.

And when the victorious Firebirds left the gym, their minds were not on the heroics of senior forward Chrision Wilburn, whose putback as time expired gave third-seeded Free State a thrilling 54-52 victory over sixth-seeded Junction City.

Instead, they were thinking about what came next — at No. 2 seed Wichita Southeast at 6 p.m. Saturday night, with a trip to the Class 6A state tournament on the line.

“No celebration,” said first-year Free State coach Sam Stroh after the victory. “It’s on to the next one. Our goal was not to win one game at sub-state. We want to do more. And we’re going to have to play a heck of a game on Saturday to advance.”

Don’t confuse Stroh’s words for the slogan of the Fun Police. Stroh and his team very much enjoyed Wilburn’s game-winner and the five minutes of jubilation that followed it. It’s just that this team, led by so many seniors and such intelligent, tough-minded players, was able to quickly curb the emotions of Thursday’s victory and began focusing on Saturday’s sub-state final.

Heck, even Wilburn, who made all three shots he attempted on Thursday, including the wide-open bunny he said was both the best and easiest shot of his life, walked out to his car with little more than a smile.

“I just saw the ball and wanted to go up right away,” Wilburn said of the game-winner that came off of a driving miss by Hunter Gudde. “The next thing I knew people were pushing me and there was just a lot of yelling and screaming.”

Free State junior Jay Dineen, who finished with 12 points, four assists and drained eight of nine crucial free throws, said Stroh, in the Firebirds’ final huddle, reminded Wilburn of his role on the play that capped the game’s final possession.

“Coach drew that up perfectly,” Dineen said. “And we executed. Chrision is a big time player for us and he definitely came through tonight.”

The dramatic ending was the third Free State victory decided at the buzzer this season.

“We’ve been pretty good at finding a way to win games at the end,” Stroh said.

The latest dramatic win proved to be one heck of a test of the Firebirds’ patience.

With the Blue Jays content to sit in 3-2 and 2-3 zones most of the night, the Firebirds were given the luxury of picking the proper spots to attack. When they chose the right times and angles, things ran smoothly and looked pretty. When they didn’t, Junction City made them pay.

That turned a scrappy chess match of a game into one that was much closer than it looked like it would be after the Firebirds, who made seven of their first eight shots and hit 68 percent from the floor for the game, raced out to a 16-4 lead five minutes into the game.

Eight minutes later, however, Junction City tied the game at 19 and it was game on. Free State trailed only once (2-0) but also never led by more than six in a second half that featured the Firebirds shooting free throws for half of the third and the entire fourth quarter.

“Coach stressed to us in practice how to attack the zone and get to the free throw line,” Dineen said. “And he said that when we got there, we needed to make ’em.”

Led by Dineen, Free State (15-6) made 13 of 18 free throws while Junction City (9-12) went to the line half as much. What kept the Blue Jays in the game was their 7-of-14 shooting touch from three-point range.

“After that start, they had nothing to lose and they just kept coming at us,” Stroh said.

Fortunately for the Firebirds, who got a dozen points from Jacob Pavlyak (most coming early), eight more from Kristian Rawls and 13 from leading scorer Gudde, the Blue Jays left Wilburn all alone when they collapsed on Gudde in the final seconds and that was the break Free State needed to advance to Saturday.

“This time of year everyone’s fighting to not go home,” Stroh said.

Added Dineen: “This is just one game and we know we need to win another one to get to state, which was our goal. If Chrision does that again Saturday, we’ll all be at his car waiting for him.”

Junction City (52)

Ricardo Erans 2-7 0-0 5, Alonzo Range 2-3 0-0 4, Christien Ozores 0-1 0-0 0, Tyrone Poole 5-10 0-1 10, Nick Arneson 6-8 3-3 15, Xavier Cason 0-2 0-2 0, Reggie Topps 0-0 0-0 0, Jovon Baldwin 2-3, 0-0 6, Timothy Bell 0-0 0-0 0, Josh Hall 2-3 4-4 8. Totals 19-35 7-10 52.

Free State boys (54)

Kristian Rawls 3-4 2-2 8, Chrision Wilburn 3-3 0-0 6, Jay Dineen 2-6 8-9 12, Jacob Pavlyak 5-5 1-2 12, Hunter Gudde 5-7 1-3 13, Sloan Thomsen 1-1 0-0 2, Shannon Cordes 0-2 0-0 0, Darian Lewis 0-0 1-2 1, Garrett Lunistra 0-0 0-0 0, Reece White-Downing 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-28 13-18 54.

Junction City 9 13 19 11–52

Free State 16 8 19 11–54

Three-point goals: Free State 3-7 (Gudde 2, Pavlyak 1); JC 7-14 (Poole 3, Baldwin 2, Erans 1 and Arneson 1). Turnovers: Free State 11, JC 7.