photo by: Val Montanez/Special to the Journal-World

Free State senior Addie Fulscher shoots a 3-pointer against Blue Valley West at Free State High on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.

Free State girls basketball senior Addie Fulscher connected on a school-record eight 3-pointers on Tuesday night, helping the Firebirds hang on to a 58-57 home win against Blue Valley West, as the team improved to 6-6 on the season.

“Her teammates’ reactions show what that means not just to her, but our team,” Free State head coach Summer Frantz said. “We knew she had a chance to get it, but we just talked in the locker room about how that’s not something that happens by chance.”

Fulscher’s game-high 28 points helped pace the Firebirds’ offense throughout the evening. Free State led by 23 after the record-breaking 3, before a valiant fourth-quarter effort by the visiting Jaguars resulted in just a one-point margin when the final buzzer sounded.

Despite letting the lead dwindle late, Frantz says that the team’s ability to hang on down the stretch provided a good learning experience for the group.

“We had a game like this earlier in the year (against Scott City) where we had a chance to shut them out, and we let them hang around, and we ended up losing,” Frantz said. “But we also know that when you let a team hang around, anything can happen in the fourth quarter.”

Fulscher was the catalyst for the offense from the beginning, scoring the Firebirds’ first seven points to help the team get out to a 7-2 advantage.

While the defense was stifling to start, forcing Blue Valley West into tough shots and crashing the defense glass, shots began to fall for the visitors, who cut the deficit to two after a 3-pointer by Natalie Kilian. Fulscher wasn’t going to be silenced, however, hitting two 3s in the final two minutes of the quarter, finishing with 13 points in total to give Free State a 17-10 lead.

While Fulscher admitted she didn’t expect to have the shooting performance that she did, she said she has felt good in recent practices, and her shot has been able to translate into games — while she has also stayed in the right headspace.

“I feel like I always have a good mentality going into the game,” she said. “I’m always ready for the shots that I take and hope that they go in. Just (having) that mentality that it’s going to go in every shot.”

Turnovers stifled the Firebird offense to start the second quarter, leaving the team unable to maintain its rhythm. These turnovers led to easy buckets for the Jaguars, who climbed back into the game and tied the score at 20 with a transition layup.

Following a timeout, the shots once again began to fall for Free State, as Fulscher added another 3-pointer and freshman Quinlynn Vail hit two of her own to give Free State a 29-23 lead going into halftime.

The Firebirds hit seven 3s as a team in the first half, and while Frantz said that the team is taking too many 3s for her liking, she was still pleased with her team’s shooting effort.

“We’ve been talking a lot more about just moving the ball, getting to that third or fourth side (of the court), and then getting paint touches before we shoot and working inside out,” she said. “I think we did a better job of that today, but it helps when we’re working inside out.”

Vail and freshman Morgan McClorey began the third quarter by each scoring a bucket before the Firebirds went nearly three minutes without recording another point. In the meantime, the Jaguars strung together four points of their own to cut the Firebirds’ lead back to six.

The drought came to an end after a 3-pointer by senior Libby Easter, which kick-started a stretch of 11 straight points, highlighted by three 3s, to make the score 44-27 at the conclusion of the third period.

While the 3s helped to extend the lead, Frantz said the game changed for Free State with its defensive intensity, as she said the team “didn’t have a sense of urgency on defense in the first half.”

“At halftime, we talked about how our defense wasn’t good enough, and we needed to play better defense in the third,” she said. “And then in the third, we played really good defense. We held them to four points.”

McClorey scored the first four points of the fourth quarter before Fulscher’s record-breaking 3-pointer extended the lead to a game-high 23 points early in the fourth.

From there, the Jaguars started to heat up from beyond the arc, hitting seven 3s on 10 attempts in the quarter to storm all the way back into the game, but the Firebirds made enough free throws down the stretch to hold on to the win.

That gave the program its most consecutive wins at three games in a row since the 2018-19 season, when it won three straight on two separate occasions.

“We’re definitely moving in the right direction, especially going into a tournament,” Frantz said. “It’s kind of the momentum that you want to have. We’re getting better all the time; we’re putting little pieces together all the time, we just have to complete the package.”

Free State will hit the road this weekend for the Glacier’s Edge Invitational in Emporia, beginning the three-day tournament against the host Spartans on Thursday at 8:15 p.m.

“I think that we know that we have a chance on Thursday to compete with a really good Emporia team, but (we need to) just be really bought into the scouting report and be focused tomorrow when we come to practice,” Frantz said.

Added Fulscher: “Keep the emotions high. Keep the confidence, just keep everything up (and) feel good going into the games.”

photo by: Val Montanez/Special to the Journal-World

Free State freshman guard Morgan McClorey shoots a layup during the game against Blue Valley West at Free State High School on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.

photo by: Val Montanez/Special to the Journal-World

Free State freshman guard Quinlynn Vail attempts a half-court shot at the buzzer against Blue Valley West at Free State High School on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.

photo by: Val Montanez/Special to the Journal-World

Free State freshman guard Quinlynn Vail looks at her shot after a 3-pointer against Blue Valley West at Free State High School on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.

photo by: Val Montanez/Special to the Journal-World

Free State freshman guard Quinlynn Vail looks at her shot after a 3-pointer against Blue Valley West at Free State High School on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.

photo by: Val Montanez/Special to the Journal-World

Free State senior guard Addie Fulscher looks to make a move against Blue Valley West at Free State High School on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.

photo by: Val Montanez/Special to the Journal-World

Free State junior forward Sarai Preston dives for the inbound against Blue Valley West at Free State High School on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.

photo by: Val Montanez/Special to the Journal-World

Free State freshman guard Taylor Hulcher dribbles past a Blue Valley West defender at Free State High on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.

photo by: Val Montanez/Special to the Journal-World

Free State freshman guard Quinlynn Vail shoots a 3-pointer against Blue Valley West at Free State High on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.

photo by: Val Montanez/Special to the Journal-World

Free State freshman guard Quinlynn Vail calls a play at halfcourt against Blue Valley West at Free State High on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.

photo by: Val Montanez/Special to the Journal-World

Free State freshman guard Quinlynn Vail shoots a 3-pointer against Blue Valley West at Free State High on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.

photo by: Val Montanez/Special to the Journal-World

Free State freshman guard Morgan McClorey looks for a teammate to make a pass against Blue Valley West at Free State High on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.