Free State's Garrett Luinstra (3) shoots a running jumper over Shawnee Mission West players Markell Hood (24) and Cameron Southern (13) during the Firebirds' home game on Friday, Feb. 23, 2018. SM West beat Free State, 60-57.

Already crowned Sunflower League champions, Free State’s boys basketball players learned a painful lesson on Senior Night.

For the first three quarters Friday, the Firebirds had trouble defensively against Shawnee Mission West and couldn’t find ways to drop their own shots. The result was a 60-57 loss at the Cage in their regular season finale.

“Nobody ever wants to lose,” FSHS senior guard Jared Hicks said, “but it’s kind of a reality check that anyone can be beat on any given night.”

Senior guard Garrett Luinstra, the team’s leading scorer, nearly erased all of his team’s woes with a dominant performance in the fourth quarter.

Luinstra, who will walk-on at Kansas next year, scored 15 of the Firebirds’ 19 points in the final eight minutes. It started with a layup and then he caught fire by showcasing everything in his repertoire: floaters, jump shots, free throws and 3-pointers.

“What’s kind of cool is everyone has seen Garrett do this the last two years,” Hicks said. “But we’ve seen him do it our entire lives on the driveway, JV games, freshmen games. It’s nothing new to us but it’s really cool to see him in the spotlight.”

Luinstra drilled a shot from near NBA range to cut the score to 56-54, bringing the home crowd into a frenzy. Down by three with under a minute left, Luinstra missed a shot, grabbed his own rebound and dished a pass to Reece White-Downing for a layup.

After a reverse layup by SM West sophomore Markell Hood (19 points, 7-for-9 shooting), the Firebirds had two attempts at a game-tying 3-pointer but both shots bounced off the rim.

“Shots weren’t falling tonight and they aren’t going to fall every night,” said Hicks, who scored six points with two 3-pointers in the first quarter. “That’s something that we just need to figure out how we can win going forward.”

The Firebirds (15-5, 11-2 in league), who were without senior guard Zach McDermott, trailed by double digits for nearly the entire third quarter. The Vikings (11-9, 7-6) made 7 of their 11 shots in their period, including 10 points from guard Cameron Southern.

“The scouting review, some of them can shoot, some of them watch the drive,” FSHS senior Reece White-Downing said. “All of them just came out hitting today and it just shocked us off that.”

Players mentioned that the loss should help them focus more in practice and they are glad that an off night arrived before the start of sub-state. Before the game, the school honored the team’s nine seniors: Hicks, Luinstra, White-Downing, McDermott, Avant Edwards, Simon McCaffrey, Bansi King, Charlie Newsome and Jalan Robinson.

“Been playing with these guys my entire life, my entire high school career,” Hicks said. “It’s fun to finish a year off with them. Although the outcome wasn’t what we wanted, just come in tomorrow, practice and get ready for sub-state.”

Shawnee Mission West (60)

Wesley Clark 1-5 0-0 2, Branson Billinger 0-2 0-0 0, Cameron Southern 7-13 3-3 19, Eric Rhymes 5-11 0-1 10, Ring Ring 4-9 0-0 8, Markell Hood 7-9 2-2 19, Jack Durst 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 25-50 5-6 60.

Free State (57)

Jared Hicks 2-3 0-0 6, Garrett Luinstra 9-23 3-3 26, Simon McCaffrey 1-4 0-0 2, Reece White-Downing 3-9 1-2 7, Jalan Robinson 3-7 0-0 6, Avant Edwards 0-0 0-0 0, Bansi King 2-4 0-0 5, Noah Butler 2-4 1-3 5. Totals 22-54 5-8 57.

SM West 12 19 19 10 — 60

Free State 13 11 14 19 — 57

3-point goals: SM West 5-11 (Hood 3, Southern 2); Free State 8-18 (Luinstra 5, Hicks 2, King). Fouled out: None. Turnovers: SM West 8, Free State 6.