photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

Free State freshman Packson McDaniel attacks the paint during the Firebirds' game against Shawnee Mission West on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, at Free State High School in Lawrence.

The Free State boys and girls basketball teams were in action for the final time of the calendar year on Friday night, as the boys defeated Shawnee Mission West 58-48, while the girls fell to the Vikings 44-36 at Free State.

The Firebird girls team trailed by double-digits in the second half and stormed back to tie the game late in the fourth, but couldn’t hang on for the win, falling to 2-4 on the season.

Turnovers hurt Free State throughout the game, with the team committing 23 in total.

“They were costly,” Free State girls head coach Summer Frantz said. “We talk a lot about that fine line between being aggressive and looking to go in transition, but, then knowing when we don’t have anything, so being aggressive but not in a hurry, to where we’re making some bad decisions.”

Free State opened the game with a 3-pointer on its first possession by senior Libby Easter and a layup from Quinlynn Vail, before not scoring for over five minutes the remainder of the quarter.

Vail led the Firebirds in scoring with 17 points and was aggressive with her shot selection down the stretch, something the coaching staff has preached to the freshman guard.

“We know what she can do, we’ve seen it for a couple years now,” Frantz said. “She just loves to compete and she loves to play basketball, so when she gets going and she’s just out there and she’s getting into the flow of the game, it’s fun to watch.”

However, the Vikings suffered a cold spell of their own after three early field goals, and held a slim 6-5 advantage after the first quarter.

Two quick 3-pointers by Shawnee Mission West forced a Free State timeout two minutes into the second quarter, and the first field goal of the quarter didn’t come until the 5 minute mark after a layup by sophomore Addi Hothan.

The teams traded field goals as a 3-pointer and a field goal by Vail, along with an Addie Fulscher layup in transition, cut the deficit to three, before a late score by the Vikings gave them a 21-16 lead at the break.

Vail added to her team-high total just eight seconds into the second half with a wide-open layup. The Firebirds didn’t score again until Hothan made a field goal with just over four minutes left in the quarter. In that time, the Vikings added a pair of field goals to make the score 25-20.

Shawnee Mission West scored seven of the next nine points to take a 10-point lead, before a 5-0 mini-run by Free State at the end of the quarter made the score 32-27.

Both teams traded two free throw makes before a 3-pointer by Vail and a field goal by Morgan McClorey tied the score at 34, before a pair of 3-pointers by the Vikings gave them the lead for good, holding on to the win by the 44-36 final score.

While Frantz said that it’s hard to find silver linings in close losses, she was proud of her team’s fight.

“That’s something we’ve really talked about, is responding to runs,” Frantz said. “I was proud of the way we kept responding to their runs.”

The Free State boys team, on the other hand, took care of business, defeating the Vikings to improve to 3-3 on the season and claim its first win in Sunflower League play.

“I thought that we did some good things, I thought that we did some not so good things,” Free State boys head coach Dwayne Paul said. “I thought when we got to the point where we knew what was going to work and we started to do those things, I thought we did what a lot of high school kids do, and we got kind of sloppy.”

Paul said that he told the team postgame that it’s okay to make aggressive mistakes, but to be able to “find that line between being aggressive and then being able to share, too.”

The Firebirds began the game with a 2-0 lead due to a technical foul that occurred in warmups, as sophomore Brendan Barrett made both free throws. Senior Bennett Nagel made the first two field goals for the team to lead 6-2 before five straight points handed the Vikings the lead.

Nagel added five more points thanks to a 3-pointer and two free throws, and freshman Packson McDaniel gave the Firebirds a 14-10 advantage after the first eight minutes on a buzzer-beating putback.

Nagel finished the first quarter with nine points and had a game-high 17, but felt he was “playing a little bit selfish at times” throughout the game.

“I feel like I should have distributed the ball a little bit, but, you know, I’m just going to keep learning,” he said.

The Firebirds opened the second quarter on a 6-2 run before four consecutive Viking points cut the lead back down to four. While points were at a premium early in the quarter, Free State outscored Shawnee Mission West 10-6 in the final two minutes to take a 30-22 lead into halftime.

The two teams traded points to open the second half as the Firebirds saw their lead dwindle to just six midway through the third quarter before closing the period on a 9-0 run backed by four points by Nagel, three from McDaniel, and two from senior Ethan Presscott to lead 46-31 going to the fourth.

“We always talk about just weathering the storm, and no matter what, if we’re up or down, you know, staying the course,” Paul said.

From there, A few scores early in the fourth quarter saw the lead grow to as much as 16, and Free State was able to hold onto its first win in league play despite Shawnee Mission West making the last 3-pointer of the game.

“Huge one,” Barrett said on how important the win was. “We knew we needed it coming in. (It) kept us at .500.”

Both teams will be back in action following the new year, with the girls team visiting Atchison on Jan. 2, while the boys team will be at home against Topeka West on Jan. 5