As the saying goes, “All good things must come to an end.” It just wasn’t the ending that Lawrence High’s boys basketball players were hoping for.


The Lions just couldn’t get their shots to drop in a 58-43 loss to Wichita East in the Class 6A state championship on Saturday at Wichita State’s Koch Arena.


“We started to press a little bit on offense and we weren’t real crisp,” LHS coach Mike Lewis said. “When you start to press and you’re not playing loose, things aren’t going your way — it just snowballs on you. There was a couple of those points there where I thought, ‘OK, here we are. We’re going to get rolling.’ That’s who we are. Everybody who has watched us all year long has seen us sputter a little bit on occasion then all of a sudden we do something that’s going to fuel that fire and get us going. We just never really had that tonight.”


The Lions were such a tight-knit group, and you could see it by how difficult it was for them to talk about how much their teammates meant to them afterward. They leaned on each other when assistant coach Kermit Aldridge died last year. They fought together to keep Lewis as their head coach. And they dealt with high expectations after earning a preseason No. 1 ranking in the state.


Though the state championship game didn’t go the way they wanted, it was impressive to see the way their classmates and teachers came out to pack the Jungle for all their home games and even quite a few road games.


By any measure, it’s easy to count this as a really successful season, and one that many people won’t forget.


In case you missed it, we’re copying one of the popular features of KUsports.com, “Keegan’s Ratings,” where Sports Editor Tom Keegan ranks KU football and men’s basketball players after every game he attends and I’m bringing back the high school ratings for this basketball season. These individual rankings are just one person’s opinion, but it’s a good way to look at how each person impacted each game.

Lawrence High boys basketball

1. Justin Roberts, jr. — It looked like Roberts was going to bring the Lions roaring back in the fourth quarter, like he’s done quite a few times in his LHS career. He knocked down a couple of threes, but the Aces always had a way of answering back. Roberts finished with 18 points and an assist, but he was just as good defensively, slowing down East senior point guard Samajae Jones, who led the Aces in scoring this year. Jones was held to eight points (1-of-8 shooting) and a big reason was Roberts sitting in hip pocket the whole game. It was a great state tournament for Roberts, who averaged 23 points per game.


2. Anthony Bonner, sr. — Bonner did everything he could to get his shots to drop, but somehow they just wouldn’t find a way to fall in. He was frustrated at the misses, at one point slapping the floor following a missed three, but I thought he did a solid job getting open looks. The Colorado State signee scored 18 points on 5-of-18 shooting and he grabbed six rebounds.


3. John Barbee, sr. — In the first half, I thought Barbee was a big reason the Lions were within single digits. He matched up against East senior Zach Jackson and held him to five points in the first two quarters, not an easy task against such a smooth and talented player. Barbee ended up with three points, all at the free throw line, and he had three rebounds and three assists.


4. Price Morgan, jr. — Morgan knew he was going to have a tough matchup against East junior forward Xavier Kelly, and I thought he did well, but Kelly was in a league of his own. Morgan had four points and a team-high seven rebounds. He had to earn all seven of those rebounds and was sent to the floor numerous times. Morgan also had a nice assist to Roberts on the Lions’ second possession of the game, tossing a nice bounce pass on a backdoor cut.


5. Ben Rajewski, sr. — Rajewski did a good job floating to open spaces against East’s defense to get open looks from behind the three-point arc. He just couldn’t get his shots to fall, going 0-for-4 from the floor. He did his best to help pinch down on Kelly in the low post and really went hard after some loose balls.


6. Logan Applegate, sr. — Applegate was playing well, using his physicality to fight for rebounds and space inside. But he picked up two touch fouls in the third quarter within 10 seconds of each other in the third quarter and had to sit with four fouls. He missed a free throw but grabbed two rebounds and one steal.


7. Fred Brou, jr. — The Lions needed Brou when Morgan and Applegate went into foul trouble, and he did his best to contain Kelly. He didn’t attempt a shot but he grabbed a rebound in five minutes.


8. Kyle Hoffman (sr.), Tae Shorter (sr.), Anthony Harvey (jr.), Jackson Mallory (so.) and Kobe Buffalomeat (so.) — All five of these guys entered in the final minute of the game. Hoffman missed a three-pointer and Harvey grabbed a rebound.


• Record: 23-2.
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