Free throw woes, buzzer-beater stop LHS boys in loss to O-North

After watching two buzzer-beaters fall through the net in a 64-63 overtime loss to Olathe North on Friday, Lawrence High boys basketball coach Mike Lewis shouldered the blame in the locker room.

The Lions (7-7, 4-3 in Sunflower League) lost their fourth straight game and suffered only their second home loss since 2014.

“It is totally on me,” Lewis said. “If I can’t get our team to finish in those situations and if I can’t get us to run our zone offense correctly, and I can’t keep us from shooting selfish shots and making silly plays and doing the fundamental things, it’s totally on me and I told those guys that.”

The Lions led by four points with 34 seconds left, but couldn’t convert at the free-throw line. They missed eight free-throw attempts in overtime, including five of their last six. That provided just enough time for more Olathe North heroics.

Inbounding the ball underneath his own rim with 1.8 seconds left in overtime, Olathe North senior Marcus Davis fired a pass to 6-foot-2 junior Anthony Brown along the right side of the baseline, in front of the stands. Brown had more than enough room to fire a jump shot and the ball swished through the net as time expired.

Brown jumped up and down in the air in celebration, adding a fist pump before he was mobbed by his teammates who rushed off of the bench. Behind him, Lawrence senior Anthony Selden slapped his hand on the bleachers in frustration.

“You look back at the four or five games, we’re in it and we have a chance to win,” Lewis said. “It’s on me that I can’t get it done. … We’re going to keep fighting and grinding and see where this can go.”

In regulation, the Eagles (9-5, 4-3) missed a free throw to give the Lions the ball with under a minute remaining in a tied game. Setting up a play out of a timeout with 15 seconds left, freshman guard Zeke Mayo drove down the lane and dished a pass to Selden for a layup with eight seconds left.

Olathe North star junior Tymer Jackson (26 points) missed a running floater while being double-teamed in the final seconds, but 6-foot-8 senior Lukas Milner was in perfect position to tip the ball in at the buzzer.

“We shouldn’t have been in that position,” said LHS point guard Trey Quartlebaum, who had a team-high 15 points with nine rebounds. “If we do the little things, make free throws and stay mentally prepared on what they told us to do, we would’ve won.”

The Lions had trouble shooting against Olathe North’s 2-3 zone, doing most of their damage in the first half when they could score in transition. Lawrence, which shot 1 of 16 from the 3-point line in a loss to Shawnee Mission East on Tuesday, missed its first 16 attempts from deep Friday before Mayo and Clarence King drilled three straight triples.

In the last three games, the Lions have lost by a combined eight points.

“It was on us,” said Quartlebaum, who scored the first four points of overtime. “We knew how to break the zone. We were straying away from what was working. If you stay on what was working, it could’ve been different.”

Trailing by eight points in the last minute of the third quarter, 6-foot-6 junior Savonni Shazor (12 points, 10 rebounds) scored four straight points on layups.

Mayo and King’s 3-pointers helped carry the momentum at the start of the fourth quarter but turnovers cost the Lions a chance to build on a 49-45 lead.

“I told our team, we’re not going anywhere,” Lewis said. “We’re going to continue to coach and fight. That’s what we do at Lawrence High, we’re not going anywhere.”

Olathe North (64)

Tymer Jackson 8-20 7-9 26, Mason Myers 3-7 2-3 8, Marcus Davis 2-5 2-2 7, Kaleb Walton 0-4 0-0 0, Lukas Milner 8-9 0-0 16, Anthony Brown 2-6 0-0 5, Koi Jackson 0-2 0-0 0, Syl Union 1-3 0-0 2, Dustin Nichols 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-56 11-14 64.

Lawrence (63)

Anthony Selden 5-9 0-0 10, Brett Chapple 2-3 2-2 6, Trey Quartlebaum 6-13 3-3 15, Jake Rajewski 1-3 0-0 2, Savonni Shazor 4-5 4-8 12, Van Dave Jacob 1-7 1-4 3, Clarence King 3-8 1-2 8, Zeke Mayo 2-5 1-2 7, Steven Strickland 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-54 12-21 63.

O-North 15 11 16 14 8 — 64

Lawrence 17 8 15 16 7 — 63

Three-point goals: O-North 5-19 (T. Jackson 3, Davis, Brown); Lawrence 3-20 (Mayo 2, King). Fouled out: Myers, Chapple. Turnovers: O-North 14, Lawrence 17.