TOPEKA — One-point-two seconds was hardly much time to draw something up, but Van Dave Jacob still thought he had a chance.

The Lions, who held the ball in a tie game moments earlier, needed to rekindle some of the magic of the tournament opener, where Clarence King drilled a near-half-court shot at the buzzer, only for it to be ruled he stepped out of bounds.

Jacob wasn’t the primary look on the play, drawn up by coach Mike Lewis in the preceding timeout, but he sprung loose as a backup option, catching the ball just in front of half court and launching it toward the rim in between two defenders as time expired.

“Yeah, it looked good,” Jacob said following the Lions’ 53-51 defeat to Wichita South, “but then it went over.”

With it, any hopes of a miracle finish to Saturday’s game.

Brett Chapple haphazardly jumped up to punch the ball back into the hoop, but the buzzer had gone off well before he got the chance. The Lions settled for fourth place in the Topeka Invitational Tournament despite looking for a majority of the day like they were going to pull out a win.

The Lions (7-5) were the aggressor early on, driving into the paint consistently and forcing their way into the double-bonus with more than five-and-a-half minutes to play in the second quarter.

LHS shot 13 free throws in the first half, but, perhaps more importantly, forced the Titans into significant foul trouble. Titans starters Remy Lemovou (9 points, 3-for-9 shooting) and Cody Silmon (0 points, 0 for 3) each picked up three fouls in the second quarter, as the Lions used a 16-5 run to snap back from a 12-11 deficit to take a 27-17 lead.

Anthony Selden (seven points) knocked down a pair of free throws to start the run, which was capped off by two more from Savonni Shazor (11 points) and a 3-pointer by Clarence King (11).

“We had that lead for a majority of the game,” said Lewis, “but instead of it being 10-12-15 points, we let ’em hang around.”

Part of the reason for that came at the line.

The Lions twice missed the front end of a one-and-one and shot just 13 for 23 at the line. But there were other factors that came into play as the game went on.

“The turnovers were the biggest part,” King said. “We’ve got to take care of the ball more.”

“As a point guard I’ve just got to back it out, run a play,” Jacob added. “Get a smart shot up.”

The Lions committed three of their 13 turnovers in the waning moments of Saturday’s contest. Wichita South only committed eight, part of the reason for the game’s shot disparity.

Because of turnovers, free throws and offensive rebounds, the Titans ended up with 16 more field goal attempts than the Lions. Wichita South (35.8 percent shooting) shot a significantly worse percentage than LHS (43.2 percent), but timely baskets, including a driving shot in the lane by Keehan Miller (game-high 19 points) proved too much to overcome.

“You can say that we were tired. I think we were just pressing a little bit and just weren’t together,” Lewis said. “It really does come down to want to and it comes down to team play and taking care of your fundamentals at both ends. We did for three quarters of the game. Then we just weren’t able to finish.”

There were some positives.

Zeke Mayo, held scoreless in the last game, put together a strong first half, scoring eight points and nearly rattling home his only missed 3-pointer.

Shazor, who opened the game with a deep 3-pointer, finished in double-figures, knocking down three of his four free-throw attempts.

Still, the 1-2 tournament slate left a bit of a bitter taste in the players’ mouths, even after Lewis reminded everyone to keep their heads up after the game.

“To be honest, I don’t think we did that good, really,” King said. “We still tried to hang in there, but we lose, we lose. It happens.”

Lawrence (51)

Anthony Selden 2-4 3-7 7, Brett Chapple 2-2 0-2 4, Trey Quartlebaum 0-5 2-2 2, Jake Rajewski 1-2 0-0 3, Savonni Shazor 3-5 3-4 11, Clarence King 5-8 0-1 11, Van Dave Jacob 0-6 5-6 5, Zeke Mayo 3-5 0-1 8. Totals 16-37 13-23 51.

Wichita South (53)

Elijah Punnett 3-7 1-2 7, Trejan Campbell 2-7 0-0 5, Keehan Miller 6-15 3-4 19, Cody Silmon 0-3 0-0 0, Remy Lemovou 3-9 3-6 9, Deahavian Manning 4-7 2-3 11, Tai Johnson 0-3 0-0 0, Ashok Sharma 1-1 0-0 2, Lar’Vonte Owens 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 19-53 9-15 53.

Lawrence 17 15 10 9 — 51

Wichita South 12 12 12 17 — 53

3-point goals: Lawrence 6-17 (Shazor, Mayo 2, Rajewski, King 1); Wichita South 6-13 (Miller 4, Campbell, Manning 1). Fouled out: none. Turnovers: Lawrence 13, Wichita South 8.