With less than five minutes remaining in a 66-50 victory Friday in the Cage, Free State senior Cameron Clark stood under Olathe South’s basket and saw a layup attempt headed his way.

Clark cocked his arm back and slammed the ball flying out of bounds for a highlight rejection. He saw it as a fly sitting on his dashboard.

Senior teammate Jay Dineen immediately hugged Clark, who had a wide smile across his face. Another teammate, Jacob Pavlyak, went over to slap hands with Clark.

At long last, the Firebirds, known for always making games as close as possible, secured a blowout, subbing in junior-varsity players with four minutes left.

“It’s about time,” junior forward Jalan Robinson said. “We like to blow leads a lot. We like to make it close for some reason.”

On the next possession following Clark’s block, senior guard Shannon Cordes went uncovered against Olathe South’s full-court press. Cordes caught the inbounds pass, raced up the floor and saw Clark on the other side of the lane in a 2-on-1 fast-break. Cordes lobbed up an alley-oop, which Clark flushed with a two-handed slam.

By then, the rout was on. Clark scored a game-high 21 points, including 15 in the second half.

“My mentality has changed,” said the 6-foot-7 Clark, who has scored at least 13 points in every game of the team’s five-game win streak. “I’m starting to realize that I have to step up for my team. Just play hard and give it my all for 32 minutes.”

The Firebirds, undefeated in Sunflower League play, had an 11-point lead at halftime, but know from experience that no lead is big enough.

Clark scored eight straight FSHS points at the beginning of the third quarter. He scored on passes from Dineen and made another layup from a near impossible angle while being fouled, sliding out of bounds as the ball dropped through the net.

Along with their inside scoring, the Firebirds (11-4, 7-0 in league) were focused on defense. The Falcons (8-8, 3-4 in league) went scoreless for a six-minute stretch in the third quarter, missing on seven straight shots before senior Nic Slavin hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.

“I like the way we came out of the half with a little energy,” FSHS coach Sam Stroh said.

The Firebirds took a double-digit lead in the second quarter when 6-6 senior Sloan Thomsen hit back-to-back 3-pointers from the same spot in the left corner – “That was huge,” Stroh said.

Three minutes afterward, Dineen scored six straight points.

The Firebirds will face Raytown at 1 p.m. today at Blue Valley Northwest in the Best of Midwest showcase.

OLATHE SOUTH (50)

Nic Slavin 5-11 2-2 14, Jacob Peters 1-4 0-0 3, Ryan Koval 0-4 0-0 0, Tre Adger 1-4 0-2 2, Brian DeSanto 6-12 2-2 15, Jared Hutton 1-3 1-2 3, Brett Beene 0-2 0-2 0, Brady Johnson 1-3 2-2 5, R.P. Morgan 1-2 0-0 3, Zach Toutges 0-0 2-2 2, Jake English 1-1 0-0 3, Preston Schuck 0-1 0-2 0. Totals 17-47 9-16 50.

FREE STATE (66)

Garrett Luinstra 5-15 2-2 12, Simon McCaffrey 1-3 0-0 3, Jay Dinen 4-5 0-2 8, Shannon Cordes 0-5 0-0 0, Cameron Clark 9-11 3-4 21, Sloan Thomsen 3-4 1-1 9, Jacob Pavlyak 0-2 0-0 0, Jalan Robinson 2-4 1-1 5, Avant Edwards 1-2 2-2 4, Jared Hicks 0-0 0-0 0, Turner Corcoran 1-2 0-0 2, Jake Baker 0-0 0-0 0, Kyle Abrahamson 0-2 2-2 2, Jax Dineen 0-0 0-0 0, Kaiy King-Wilson 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 26-56 11-15 66.

O-South 6 12 7 25 — 50

Free State 13 16 17 20 — 66

Three-point goals: Olathe South 7-20 (Slavin 2, Peters, DeSanto, Johnson, Morgan, English); Free State 3-19 (Thomsen 2, McCaffrey). Turnovers: Olathe South 9, Free State 6.