photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Senior guard Brynnae Johnson passes to a teammate during a 61-43 win over Olathe East at Lawrence High School on January 14, 2025. Johnson led the team with 25 points.

Lawrence High School’s basketball teams returned to action for the first time in almost a month and split their games against Olathe East. The girls won decisively, 61-43, and the boys lost 61-45.

Johnson, Nauholz lead the Lions to a nearly 20-point victory

Lawrence had a definite size advantage in the matchup against Olathe East. Even though it took a couple of minutes to score their first points of the night, the team attacked the paint and took an early 10-3 lead exclusively with layups.

D’ema Barnes hit the first shot outside the paint to make it a 10-point lead, and Cami Nauholz scored on a put-back to give the Lions a 15-3 lead after the first quarter.

The Lions’ size advantage was apparent in shot selection — Nauholz and Brynnae Johnson found most of their points in post-ups or driving to the rim–but it also showed in rebounding. The Lions consistently rebounded the ball on offense, leading to many of Nauholz’s baskets.

Johnson started the second half with one of her best scoring streaks. She scored 10 of the team’s first 12 points of the half, which gave the Lions a 40-12 lead. She finished with 19 points in the third quarter alone.

Lawrence coach Jeff Dickson wasn’t only impressed with her ability to score. Dickson complimented Johnson’s ability to get everyone else involved, which often happened with Nauholz under the rim. Johnson finished with 25 points, and Nauholz had 20 points.

Olathe East found some offensive momentum late in the third quarter as the Lions struggled with some foul trouble, but the Lions managed to hold a 20-point lead entering the final quarter. Dickson said the defense “was great at times and pretty bad at others.”

From there, Nauholz iced the game late by scoring the team’s final 7 points. The Hawks scored two late baskets to bring the Lawrence lead under 20 points, but the Lions still came away with a 61-43 win.

Lions falter in comeback and lose 63-45 to Olathe East

Both teams in the boys basketball match started relatively quiet until Lawrence guard Eddie Roman Nose started to hit shots. Roman Nose scored 9 of the team’s 11 first-quarter points. When the Hawks got too far ahead of the Lions, Roman Nose hit a needed shot to keep it within two possessions. But for as hot of a start as Roman Nose got out to, the junior guard didn’t hit a basket in the last two quarters. He finished with 12 points in the game.

Both teams scored more in the second quarter, but the Hawks had the majority of the buckets for the first seven minutes. With 1:25 left, the Lions closed the half on an 8-0 run to make it 32-24 in favor of Olathe East.

The third quarter featured some big shots for the Lions. Down by 12, Avery Johnson and Aden Ramirez hit 3-pointers on three straight possessions to make it a 3-point game. The duo continued to score through the quarter, and the Lions closed a 12-point deficit to 5 points with one quarter left.

Ramirez finished with 10 points, while Johnson had 11. Both scored the most in the third quarter.

The Lions struggled to keep up the momentum. Devin Foster scored the first basket of the quarter, but the Hawks went on a 15-2 run through five minutes of play. A slew of fouls midway through the quarter stunted the Lions’ momentum. After the run, the Hawks led 59-41, and the Lions were about out of time to make a comeback.

“It’s been a unique beginning to the second semester,” coach Nick Wood said. “You have your long break during the holiday season, and then you come back and we have a bunch of snow days, so we aren’t able to get in the gym. I feel like we were playing some good basketball by the end of December, and now we have to find our way to get back into basketball shape.”

One positive for the Lions came during warmups. Junior Josh Galbreath didn’t play, but he did warm up with the team and is moving closer to returning to the team in late January after a lower leg injury toward the end of the football season. Wood said that Galbreath’s athleticism will be a big boost for the team down the stretch.

Lawrence’s basketball teams will play at home on Friday against Mill Valley. The girls game is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. with the boys playing after.

photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Lawrence senior guard Aden Ramirez swings the ball to a teammate during a 63-45 loss to Olathe East at Lawrence High School on January 14, 2025.