OVERLAND PARK — It was far from a raucous scene after the Free State boys basketball team clinched its second straight Sunflower League title.

The postgame reaction — if you would even call it that — could be summarized by a pair of players turning the corner down a hall after exiting the court.

“Ayyy,” one shouted out following Free State’s 74-52 win over Shawnee Mission North, “we league champs.”

As it were, coach Sam Stroh was OK with the lack of celebration. Actually, he encouraged it.

“We’ll celebrate sometime in, hopefully, the middle of March,” Stroh said. “We’ve got to get home, get some food in us, hydrate and get ready to go tomorrow with film.”

The unforgiving 16 1/2-hour turnaround of a game against Bishop Miege may have kept what would’ve been a subdued celebration even more so.

Still, it didn’t hinder Free State’s success on the court — at all.

The Firebirds (14-3, 10-1 in league) blitzed the Indians in the first half, starting the game on a 10-2 run and pushing the lead out to double digits in the second quarter.

Garrett Luinstra paced the offense early, drilling a pull-up 3-pointer in transition in the first quarter and then knocking down a shifty step-back 3 early in the third.

“We’ve got confidence in him. It kind of took a while to have that confidence in him,” Stroh said. “As a sophomore we had to tell him to shoot. And now we don’t have to tell him that.”

Certainly not on Friday.

The future KU walk-on knocked down four of his first five shots from 3 and finished with a game-high 22 points.

The step-back 3 was perhaps Luinstra’s greatest highlight, but he also impressed with a flurry of finishes at the rim — a substantial leap forward from when he was just a sophomore, like Stroh alluded to, fighting for a few minutes and building up the confidence to shoot.

“I never thought I would do this, but hard work pays off,” Luinstra said of his season. “If you keep working hard, you can accomplish anything.”

And although Friday might not have marked the greatest of accomplishments, it was still one off the list.

Zach McDermott (20 points, 8-for-13 shooting) sparked the Firebirds on both ends of the court; Jalan Robinson (14, 5 for 6) proved to be a force inside.

Noah Butler, listed at 6-foot-4, did a solid job frustrating the 6-7 Jarrett Hensley (3-for-11 shooting) and added eight points down the stretch, while DK Middleton provided valuable minutes throughout the first half when Butler got into foul trouble.

The team effort kept the margin at double digits for the entirety of the second half, with the final buzzer resulting in no more celebration and fanfare than any other win.

“Back to back years is pretty good, but we can’t be satisfied,” Luinstra said. “We want to beat Miege tomorrow and there’s a lot more things we want to accomplish down the road.”

Free State (74)

Garrett Luinstra 8-15 2-2 22, Simon McCaffrey 0-2 0-0 0, Noah Butler 4-6 0-1 8, Zach McDermott 8-13 2-2 20, Jalan Robinson 5-6 4-6 14, DK Middleton 1-2 0-0 2, Bansi King 3-5 0-1 6, Turner Corcoran 0-1 0-2 0, Jared Hicks 0-0 0-0 0, Avant Edwards 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 30-51 8-14 74.

Shawnee Mission North (52)

Zach Nelson 4-12 2-2 11, KyTerrian Harris 1-4 0-0 2, Tommy Faseru 0-1 0-2 0, Ray Verdugo 2-5 0-0 4, Jarrett Hensley 3-11 4-4 10, Peyton Downey 2-5 0-0 5, Amari Williams 2-2 0-0 6, Jackson Bell 3-7 0-0 6, Termaine Jackson 2-4 3-5 8, Darion Holland 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 19-44 9-13 52.

Free State 13 20 18 23–74

SM North 10 9 16 17–52

3-point goals: Free State 6-16 (Luinstra 4, McDermott 2); SM North 5-15 (Williams 2, Nelson, Downey, Jackson 1). Fouled out: none. Turnovers: Free State 15, SM North 14.