Overland Park ? Free State’s boys basketball team came up just short in a 53-46 loss to Olathe East in the third-place game of the Saints Classic on Saturday, but FSHS coach Chuck Law was anything but discouraged with how his Firebirds performed.

“I thought we played great. That might have been our best game of the year, actually,” Law said. “They (the Hawks) are just so talented, so big and so skilled. We’re right there.”

FSHS junior Hunter Gudde made back-to-back buckets to cut the Free State deficit to 48-46 with 1:07 remaining, but the No. 2-ranked team in 6A closed it out in the final minute with a breakaway dunk from Cameron Hunter and by making three out of four at the free-throw line. Gudde led all scorers with 17 points, despite being hampered with foul trouble for the entirety of the second half.

“I had three fouls in the first half, so we had to do this offense-defense thing, and I just came in in the second half and did my job,” Gudde said.

The 6-foot guard came out aggressively after the break despite the three fouls and got Hawks’ 6-foot 8-inch big man, Josiah Talbert, in foul trouble as well. Gudde drove to the basket to draw Talbert’s third foul with 6:37 left in the third, but momentum quickly swung the other way. Just five seconds later, Gudde picked up his fourth foul when he was battling with Talbert for a rebound and had to ride the bench for the rest of the third quarter.

“If we had the refs on our side more, I think we could have won that game easily,” a frustrated Gudde said.

After Gudde exited with his fourth foul, Talbert took over, scoring seven straight points with two buckets down low and stepping outside to knock down one of his two three-pointers. Talbert was limited to two points in the first half, but ended up with 12 points.

The Firebirds stayed within striking distance, though, by slowing the game down and knocking down shots from long range.

Following the Talbert-led 9-0 run that gave the Hawks an eight-point edge, Shannon Cordes and Sloan Thomsen nailed back-to-back threes to put the Firebirds right back in it.

“I feel like we executed like we were supposed to and did what coach asked us,” said Thomsen, who hit three triples for all nine of his points.

FSHS, 5-6, was never able to get over the hump, though, settling for fourth place in the three-day tournament.

“I thought our whole team played great,” Law said. “I thought that was one of our best, if not the best effort of the year. We just came up short against a really good team and couldn’t catch a break.”

The Firebirds will be back in action against Lansing at 4 p.m. Saturday in the Midwest Showcase at Municipal Auditorium.

FREE STATE (46)

Jay Dineen 0-0 0-0 0, Andrew Keating 0-1 0-0 0, Jacob Pavlayk 1-4 1-2 4, Shannon Cordes 1-4 0-0 3, Weston Hack 2-9 2-2 8, Justin Narcomey 1-3 0-0 3, Hunter Gudde 6-7 5-8 17, Jack Raney 1-2 0-0 2, Sloan Thomsen 3-7 0-0 9, Chrision Wilburn 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-37 8-12 46.

OLATHE EAST (53)

Kameron Barnes 0-1 0-0 0, Javion Blake 2-6 7-7 13, Dion Union 0-5 5-6 5, Jack Hiller 2-3 0-0 5, Cedric Roland 4-7 2-3 10, Cameron Hunter 2-6 4-4 8, Josiah Talbert 5-9 0-0 12. Totals 15-37 18-20 53.

Free State 10 15 10 11 — 46

Olathe East 9 18 11 15 — 53

Three-point goals: Free State 8-27 (Thomsen 3, Hack 2, Narcomey, Cordes, Pavlyak), Olathe East 5-12 (Blake 2, Talbert 2, Hiller). Turnovers: Free State 10, Olathe East 5. Technical Foul: Hunter (Olathe East). Fouled out: Cordes (Free State).