Free State junior Noah Butler (24) completes a slam dunk Tuesday at Olathe East.

OLATHE — Early in the second quarter, Free State senior guard Garrett Luinstra jumped for a rebound, lost his balance and fell squarely on his back with a loud crash landing.

Play was stopped momentarily as a teammate slowly helped him to his feet. When Free State boys basketball coach Sam Stroh asked Luinstra if he was OK from the bench, Luinstra gave a look of disgust. Of course, he was OK.

Luinstra swished a mid-range jumper a few seconds later. Then he scored on a floater. A minute later, he added a 3-pointer. Luinstra scored 11 points in the second quarter to help the Firebirds jump-start their offense in a 69-48 road victory at Olathe East.

“It just knocked the wind out of me,” said Luinstra, who scored 24 points on 9 of 13 shooting. “I was just fine after that. It’s going to hurt in the morning.”

Stroh added: “He looked good. Shot looked good. Yeah, he’s fine.”

After Luinstra’s first bucket following the injury scare, the Firebirds responded with a 20-8 run in the last six minutes of the first half. Senior point guard Zach McDermott (11 points, five rebounds) scored five points in the spurt and Simon McCaffrey added a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.

Once the Firebirds (9-3, 5-1 in the Sunflower League) started heating up, there was no stopping them. McCaffrey drilled two more triples in the third quarter. Luinstra, who plans to walk on at Kansas next year, only missed one shot in the second half and he scored on his own put-back.

With aggressive drives, 6-foot-4 junior wing Noah Butler scored eight of his 11 points in the second half. The only time his aggressiveness caught up to him was when he lost his grip on a potential fast-break dunk. He made up for it a couple of minutes later, adding a two-handed slam on a pass from Reece White-Downing.

“When Noah gets going, we all start to get going,” Luinstra said. “When he does, it’s a huge boost of confidence for him and for us too. I’m glad he got going. We need him further down the road.”

All of Free State’s offensive success erased any breakdowns defensively guarding Olathe East’s pick-and-rolls by senior forward Kaleb Mackey (16 points). The Hawks (6-7, 2-4 in league) never cut the score to single digits in the second half.

Instead, the Firebirds took turns trying to find the hot shooter. Six players recorded an assist as they remained in first place in the league standings.

“It just shows how good of a team we can be,” McCaffrey said. “Everyone can score the rock, so it’s fun to play like that, share the ball, because everyone can shoot on our team and score.”

The Firebirds will play host to Shawnee Mission East at 7 p.m. Friday. It’s a rematch of the McPherson Invitational Tournament third-place game when Free State lost by 15.

“We didn’t play well against them the first time,” Stroh said. “Good team but I think we can control how we play. Not to say we didn’t do a good job the first time, but it’ll be a good film session tomorrow of that game.”

Free State (69)

Garrett Luinstra 9-13 4-4 24, Simon McCaffrey 3-6 0-0 9, Reece White-Downing 2-5 3-5 8, Zach McDermott 4-9 2-3 11, Jalan Robinson 1-4 3-4 5, Bansi King 0-3 0-0 0, Noah Butler 4-8 3-4 11, Jared Hicks 0-0 0-0 0, Avant Edwards 0-0 1-2 1, DK Middleton 0-0 0-0 0, Charlie Newsome 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-50 16-22 69.

Olathe East (48)

Jake Reynolds 1-7 2-2 4, Robert Kullberg 0-0 0-0 0, Luke Stuewe 3-6 1-2 8, Charlie Bell 2-4 2-4 6, Kaleb Mackey 7-12 1-2 16, Sam Carroll 1-5 0-0 3, Dakota La Gore 3-5 1-1 7, KT Raimey 1-3 2-2 4, Trenton White 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-42 9-13 48.

Free State 11 22 21 15 — 69

O-East 10 12 16 10 — 48

Three-point goals: Free State 7-15 (McCaffrey 3, Luinstra 2, White-Downing, McDermott); O-East 3-13 (Stuewe, Mackey, Carroll). Fouled out: None. Turnovers: Free State 9, O-East 16.