photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Lawrence sophomore Joey Dooley, left, dribbles around a screen in a loss to Mill Valley on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Shawnee.

SHAWNEE — The Lawrence boys basketball team went into Wednesday’s substate game against Mill Valley knowing the challenge ahead of them was going to be big. So they went in with nothing to lose.

Lawrence didn’t get the upset win over No. 3 Mill Valley the team hoped for, but the Lions closed out their season swinging in the 92-50 loss.

“I was so proud of them,” Lawrence coach Nick Wood said. “It would’ve been easy to come over here and not have the right mindset to compete. But that’s not what Lawrence High is, that’s not who these kids are and that’s not the standard they created for themselves.”

The first time Lawrence and Mill Valley played, the Jaguars took an early 21-6 lead by stifling the Lawrence offense. It remained a challenging night for the Lawrence offense on that day, as the Jaguars won 69-38.

Lawrence was confident and aggressive to start the game the second time, which was a concerted effort.

“We came out with a ton of energy,” senior Devin Foster said. “We had nothing to lose. We had to come out and work as hard as we could… We just wanted to go out and do our best, and I think we did.”

Junior Kenyon Doleman started the game with a layup and an and-1, and Foster pushed the Lawrence lead to five with a layup on an assist from senior Eddie Roman Nose.

The Lions committed a couple of turnovers, which got the Jaguars their first four points, but Roman Nose extended the Lions’ lead with a 3-pointer. Simon Simien scored on a driving layup, but the Jaguars quickly tied the game at 10-10 with under four minutes left in the quarter.

Lawrence continued to hold the lead for the majority of the quarter and held a 16-15 lead into the final seconds. But a buzzer-beater 3-pointer from the Jaguars gave them the lead that the Lions never got back.

Mill Valley started the second quarter with a 3-pointer that kicked off a 14-4 run.

“We showed them we were here to compete,” Wood said. “Mill Valley just showed that they’re a really good basketball team. You blink, and all of a sudden they’re on a 10-0 run when you’ve been playing so hard to stay in the basketball game.”

The Lions hurt themselves with turnovers and six missed free throws in the first two quarters as Mill Valley extended the lead to 20 points with another run. The Lions closed the quarter with four free throws on six attempts from sophomore Joey Dooley and senior Jaxon Becker, but the Jaguars held a 46-27 lead at halftime.

Wood said the team went into the third quarter hopeful and that the Lions were a few minutes away from getting right back into the game. But the Jaguars made sure that didn’t happen as they continued to make plays.

Mill Valley continued to extend the lead in the third quarter with more fast-break points off turnovers. The Jaguars are an athletic team, and they used that to their advantage in transition on Wednesday.

“We knew a key to the game was going to be their transition,” Wood said. “We had to value the basketball, and they really push the ball well off of makes. We tried to mitigate that, but they’re big, strong, athletic and get in the passing lanes. And we didn’t take care of the basketball enough.”

Mill Valley’s Reece Riedel took over in the third quarter, as he pushed Mill Valley’s lead to over 30 points. He finished with 41 points, which was over half of Mill Valley’s point total when he subbed out for the last time.

Roman Nose started the fourth with a free throw, and Dooley converted an and-1 soon after. Both teams were running up and down the court, and that allowed a few Lions to get buckets. Senior Khyree McGee scored after getting an offensive rebound, which secured a bucket for each senior on the team.

“Those four seniors are awesome kids,” Wood said. “We talked about it in the locker room: They are helping create a standard of what a Lawrence High kid is, and they’ve given me all they have for three years. I’m proud of them, and they’re going to do terrific things.”

The final few minutes finished with a running clock, and the Lawrence season concluded.

“We had some ups and downs, but I loved the whole process,” Foster said. “It’s sad I won’t be playing basketball with them anymore. Senior year… it’s starting to become more real.”

Lawrence had a young squad this season that grew from experience. Even with a challenging year and some difficult losses, the Lions will return a lot of this year’s team, including three of five starters. Foster said he’s seen a lot of maturity from the freshmen and sophomores that played a lot of minutes, and Wood was happy with their improvement.

“We asked a lot out of (the underclassmen),” Wood said. “They continue to get better. Some really good things were happening. We’ve got a lot of multi-sport athletes in our locker room, which is what it should be like, and their successes in basketball will carry over to baseball, will carry over to football and will carry over to the next basketball season.”