Eighty-four days ago, Lawrence High and Free State’s girls basketball team stepped on the floor for their first game of the season. One day before that, Free State’s boys basketball team made its debut.

Now we’ve arrived to the final game in the regular season — the City Showdown, which begins with the girls game at 5:30 p.m. Friday. The boys will follow afterward.


All four teams have come a long ways since their first game. The second-ranked Lawrence boys basketball players have surpassed their win total from a year ago, and the ninth-ranked Free State girls are one win away from setting a new program record for wins in a season.


Meanwhile, Free State’s boys basketball team overcame some offensive woes early in the season and have won six of its last eight games. The LHS girls have won three straight games for the first time since the 2010-11 season.


With sub-state approaching next week, I think it’s safe to say that both of the boys and girls basketball teams from the two schools are trending in the right direction at the right time. So you couldn’t time it any better for the two rivals to face off for the second time this season.


I could see any of the teams pulling out wins on Friday, and that’s the great thing about the City Showdown. It should be a fun night.
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I stopped by each school to get video introductions of all of the teams’ starting lineups. I also asked all of the players to name their favorite basketball player at any level. Most of the people in the video started in their most recent games, but these aren’t the official starters for Friday. You can watch the video below:



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Some quick notes on a couple of Lawrence natives:


•Former Free State basketball star Kennedy Kirkpatrick is averaging 5.3 points per game off of the bench for Bowling Green University’s women’s basketball team. She scored a game-high 18 points in a 66-53 win over Miami (Ohio) about a month ago in 26 minutes.

•A few weeks ago, former Free State distance runner Bailey Sullivan, now at Texas Christian University, helped set a new school record in the women’s distance medley relay. Sullivan ran the first leg, 1200-meters, in their record time of 11:42.32, which broke a 14-year old record by more than eight seconds.


•Former Lawrence High star pitcher Garrett Cleavinger has picked up two saves for the University of Oregon this season in three appearances.
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As always, feel free to comment, email me, or find me on Twitter @nightengalejr.