Free State junior Simon McCaffrey passes the ball while being guarded by Shawnee Mission Northwest senior Jaylen Love in the first half of the Firebirds' 65-60 win over the Cougars on Friday.

Shawnee ? The Free State boys basketball team scored early and often, and flustered Shawnee Mission Northwest defensively to build a double-digit lead in the first quarter, but Firebirds coach Sam Stroh was not happy with the energy that his squad played with the rest of the way in a 65-60 victory over the Cougars.

The No. 7-ranked Firebirds (9-4, 5-0) surged out to an 11-0 lead in the first four minutes and four seconds, which was an encouraging sight for Stroh. Less pleasing to the Free State coach’s eyes, though, was watching his team cling to a one-possession lead in the final minute.

“I liked the way we started out the game. I thought that that was one of our better starts this year,” Stroh said. “The challenge, though, is can we do it for 32 minutes. We’re still not there yet.”

The Firebirds were able to take control in the early going by hammering the ball down low to senior Cameron Clark and junior Jalan Robinson. Clark was an efficient 7-of-11 from the field, and finished with 16 points. Robinson made all four of his shots in the post to end the night with eight points.

“Like coach (Stroh) says, ‘Practice makes perfect.’ We do it in practice, and we do it in the game,” Clark said. “My point guards, we have a connection. We just have that mentality and we always play together. Two-game all day.”

Junior Garrett Luinstra capitalized on the attention that was being given to the two Free State forwards in the paint, and poured in 16 points to pace the Firebirds from the perimeter.

“He’s always been stepping up. He’s getting better and better each day in practice and in games,” said Clark of Luinstra. “I just love it. He’s just making plays for the team.”

The rest of the Firebirds struggled to get going on the offensive end, though, but they made enough of their free throws down the stretch to pull out the victory. The Firebirds knocked down 19 of their 25 attempts from the charity stripe. Senior Shannon Cordes was a perfect 8-for-8 from the line.

Despite holding off the Cougars to win their third straight contest, Stroh said that the Firebirds have a lot to work on going into their 7 p.m. home tilt with Shawnee Mission North on Tuesday.

“Just figure out a way to finish a game off. They said all of the right things and we talked about it all at half, but then we come out and we’re sloppy with some execution stuff defensively,” Stroh said. “We gave up a couple of things that we shouldn’t have given up, but they did hit some shots and we didn’t shoot as well in the second half.

“Still, it shouldn’t have been a one-possession game down the stretch when we had the lead that we did. We’ve got to get back in the film room, back on the practice court tomorrow morning and we’ll keep working with them.”

SMNW (60)

Cole Biery 0-0 0-0 0, Colton Skeens 9-15 1-2 22, Adam Gleason 0-1 0-0 0, CC Ghilardi 5-8 0-0 12, Alex Oleson 2-5 1-2 5, Noah Kendall 3-7 2-3 8, Austin Heinisch 1-3 0-0 3, Jaylen Love 3-8 3-4 9, Jason Eskina 0-1 0-0 0, George Specht 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 23-48 7-11 60.

FSHS (65)

Garrett Luinstra 5-8 5-6 16, Jacob Paylyak 1-4 0-0 2, Simon McCaffrey 1-1 0-0 3, Jay Dineen 1-2 4-5 6, Shannon Cordes 1-4 8-8 10, Cameron Clark 7-11 2-5 16, Sloan Thomsen 2-5 0-0 4, Jalan Robinson 4-4 0-1 8, Avant Edwards 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 22-39 19-25 65.

SMNW 9 11 15 25 — 60

FSHS 22 12 10 11 — 65

Three-point goals: SMNW 6-17 (Skeens 3, Ghilardi 2, Heinisch); FSHS 2-9 (Luinstra, McCaffrey). Fouled out: CC Ghilardi, SMNW. Turnovers: SMNW 12, FSHS 8.