STILWELL — Savonni Shazor knew exactly where it was going.

As he fired a 3 from the left wing, the 6-foot-6 junior sprung right to the basket, collecting his miss off the iron and putting the ball back up and in. The Lawrence boys basketball team, once down by as many as 21, was three points away from erasing the deficit entirely.

“I know I started off slow, but we were down by 20 and we needed a spark,” said Shazor following the Lions’ 63-56 loss to Olathe South. “So I thought I would.”

That spark, however welcome, was not enough.

The Falcons, which led wire to wire, protected the ball and maintained composure down the stretch. By the time the final seconds bled off the clock and LHS’ Trey Quartlebaum launched a shot from well behind half court, the game was equally well out of reach.

The reason for that may have started even before the 8-0 Olathe South run to open the game.

“I really think that game last night against Grandview might have taken more out of us than we were aware of,” said LHS coach Mike Lewis. “Good teams need to bounce back and let things go, and I don’t think we bounced back very well tonight.”

Less than 24 hours removed from a controversial finish and narrow defeat, the Lions were back on the floor at Blue Valley playing for third place instead of what probably should’ve been the championship game.

The Lions began the game missing their first four shots from the field and committing a turnover in the first four minutes. Down 18-5 after one, the Lions quickly found themselves behind by 21, their largest deficit of the game, while Olathe South didn’t commit a turnover until the 3:45 mark in the second quarter.

Outside of Quartlebaum (seven first-half points), the Lions shot just 1 for 15 in the first half, compared to 12-for-20 shooting by the Falcons. The Falcons first flustered the Lions with their press and then a zone defense that led to too many static possessions and long jump shots.

“It might be an understatement to (say) slow start in the first half,” said Lewis. “Just very much lethargic and out of it.”

Playing without Anthony Selden, who got “dinged up” at the end of the last game, per Lewis, as well as senior Steven Strickland, who missed his second straight contest, the Lions began to make their charge in the second half.

The Lions used an 8-0 run in the third quarter to get back into the game, but were never able to pull closer than 3.

Shazor scored all of his 17 points in the second half, which included 10 in the third quarter. Brett Chapple, who missed his first three shots, hit on four of his last six to end with 12 points. Quartlebaum rounded out the double-digit scorers with 15 points on 6-for-13 shooting.

“(Shazor) started to find his groove,” said Lewis. “But, again, too late. We needed to be that way two or three minutes into the game and punch back. And we just continued to get punched.”

The Lions, forced to regroup after the loss, will have a week to do so this time. They’ll next take the floor Dec. 15 against Free State in Allen Fieldhouse, where they’ll hope their play mirrors exactly one half of their performance on Friday and not the other.

“If we played better, we probably would’ve won that game,” Shazor said. “(Coach) just told us, ‘How we played the second half, we need to play the whole game in order to beat good teams.'”

Lawrence (56)

Zeke Mayo 2-9 0-0 5, Brett Chapple 4-9 4-8 12, Trey Quartlebaum 6-13 2-4 15, Jake Rajewski 1-6 1-2 4, Savonni Shazor 6-12 5-5 17, Eric Galbreath 0-1 0-0 0, Willie Dotson 1-2 0-0 3, Bryant Graham 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-52 12-19 56.

Olathe South (63)

Brady Johnson 4-6 1-1 11, Ryan Koval 4-7 6-7 14, R.P. Morgan 2-4 10-10 14, Preston Schuck 4-6 0-0 8, Brian DeSanto 3-6 1-4 7, Alex Schmidt 1-6 0-0 2, Trey Dunn 0-0 0-0 0, Jake English 2-4 3-3 7, Kobe McKinley 0-1 0-0 0, Alex Wallace 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 20-40, 21-25, 63.

Lawrence 5 5 19 27– 56

Olathe South 18 12 12 21 — 63

3-point goals: Lawrence 4-19 (Mayo, Quartlebaum, Rajewski, Dotson 1); Olathe South 2-10 (Johnson 2). Turnovers: Lawrence 7, Olathe South 8.