Lawrence High senior Jackson Mallory runs over to the Lions' student section to celebrate LHS' 41-36 win over Blue Valley North in the semifinals of the Class 6A state tournament on Friday at Wichita State's Charles Koch Arena. Mallory scored 12 points.

Wichita ? The Lawrence High boys basketball team faced a four-point deficit before a second even ticked off the clock in Friday’s Class 6A state semifinal matchup at Wichita State’s Koch Arena, but the Lions did not panic.

Blue Valley North’s Colby Bullock drained four free throws to open the game after Kobe Buffalomeat and Anthony Selden were assessed technical fouls for dunking in pre-game warm-ups, but that only fueled the Lions’ fire in their 41-36 victory over the Mustangs.

With the win, the Lions advanced to the 6A state title game for the second time in the past three seasons. Lawrence will play top-seeded BV Northwest (21-3) at 6:15 Saturday.

Sixth-seeded BV North (17-7) jumped out to a 13-2 lead just less than five minutes in, but Lawrence locked in defensively to seize control. The Mustangs only scored seven points from the 3:16 mark of the first quarter to the beginning of the fourth (19 minutes), as the Lions took a 28-20 lead into the final eight minutes.

“We just knew we had to settle in defensively and work together as a team,” LHS senior Jackson Mallory said. “We knew we were going to be down, and then they came out and they hit a three first play of the game, so then we were down 7-0. We knew we just had to buckle down and do our jobs.”

Sophomore Clarence King and Mallory paced the Lions with 17 and 12 points, respectively. With the Lions (17-7) clinging to a 38-35 lead with 14.7 remaining and inbounding the ball from underneath their own basket, Mallory found King cutting to the rim for a contested layup to give them some more breathing room.

“I knew if I didn’t give it my all, it wasn’t good to be good,” King said. “So I had to give it my all.”

King wasn’t at his best during the Lions’ quarterfinal win over Manhattan on Wednesday, but LHS coach Mike Lewis could tell that his standout sophomore was firing on all cylinders early on against the Mustangs.

“What a great game for him. Wednesday he was nervous and just a little bit shook up with the atmosphere in my opinion,” said Lewis of King. “Once he gets loose and comfortable, watch out because he’s a talented player. He just had that comfort zone to start the game.”

While King and Mallory came up with big buckets at big times for LHS, the Lions turned in a team effort defensively to fight back from their 11-point first quarter deficit. Senior Austin Miller face-guarded Bullock and limited him to just seven points after the four technical free throws to open the game.

“We knew Austin could guard him, so we told Austin to guard him,” said King of Miller. “He did very well at moving his feet and making sure he couldn’t get any easy buckets. We stuck with that game plan, and it went well.”

Bullock and the Mustangs did not go quietly, though, after being shut down during the second and third quarters. Bullock scored five of his 11 points during a 9-1 BV North run to open the fourth, and the Mustangs pulled even at 29-all with 6:01 to play.

The Lions had an answer, though, as Miller and King scored three points apiece for a 6-0 run over the next 71 seconds.

However, the Mustangs had a counter-punch from 6-foot-5 big man Miles Emery to tie it right back at 35 with with 2:44 to go. Emery — who has received a football scholarship offer from Kansas — went on a personal 6-0 run, but the Lions never did give up the lead.

“They started pressing, and we started getting sped up, so we knew we just had to slow down and just take care of the ball,” Mallory said. “If we took care of the ball, we knew we could get easy shots and just keep swinging the ball until we got an easy shot, so that’s what we did at the end.”

Lawrence senior forward Kobe Buffalomeat put an end to Emery’s surge to give the Lions the lead for good. Buffalomeat — who was sick after starring in Wednesday’s quarterfinal victory — scored his only point of the night when he hit one of two from the free-throw line with 1:23 to play.

“With Kobe, he was throwing up the whole way home Wednesday. We were taking pit stops on our way back to Lawrence,” Lewis said. “So he hadn’t been feeling good. We challenged Anthony Selden and Noah Butler and Brett Chapple and said, ‘Here we go.’ Those guys came in and played great minutes. They didn’t miss a beat.”

Selden didn’t score, but contributed three blocks and three steals on the defensive end, while Butler added four points and two rebounds.

The Lions know they’ll need everyone to contribute again when they face a Huskies squad that has spent the majority of the season ranked No. 1 in 6A. Lawrence topped BVNW last year in the state’s third-place game behind 31 points from graduated senior Justin Roberts.

“They are a fast-paced team,” said Mallory, who scored 15 points in last year’s match-up against the Huskies. “They play really great up-tempo defense, so we’re just going to have to take care of the ball because against presses we are a little shaky against that. If we take care of the ball against them, I think it will be OK.”

Lawrence’s last state championship came in 1995.

BLUE VALLEY NORTH (36)

Mitchell Rhyner 1-2 0-0 3, Colby Bullock 2-14 6-6 11, Miles Emery 7-8 0-1 14, Keilon Hunter 1-4 1-2 4, Nicholas Orr 1-6 0-0 2, Jake Gittemeier 0-0 0-0 0, Eric Baston 0-0 0-0 0, Wyatt Turner 0-1 0-0 0, Dylan Freberg 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 13-36 7-9 36.

LAWRENCE (41)

Braden Solko 0-1 0-0 0, Brett Chapple 0-1 0-0 0, Clarence King 7-11 2-6 17, Jackson Mallory 4-8 2-3 12, Kobe Buffalomeat 0-2 1-2 1, Austin Miller 2-5 1-2 5, Anthony Selden 0-2 0-0 0, Noah Butler 2-4 0-0 4, Trey Quartlebaum 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 16-37 6-13 41.

BV North 13 4 3 16 — 36

Lawrence 9 10 9 13 — 41

3-point goals: BV North 3-11 (Rhyner, Bullock, Hunter); Lawrence 3-12 (Mallory 2, King). Fouled out: None. Turnovers: Blue Valley North 20, Lawrence 9.