WICHITA — Although the Lions fought to the very end, they were ultimately overtaken by Wichita East with a 58-43 defeat tonight. The team took second in the 6A basketball state tournament.

After the game, Coach Mike Lewis said he and team members were trying to stay positive.

“I just thought about all the good times we had, all the basketball games, all the team dinners, all of the practices,” Lewis said. “We spent an awful lot of time with each other and for it to come to a screeching hault like this is hard, but I just have a lot of positive feelings toward this group.”

The Lions fought to stay in the game despite trailing most of the night. The team trailed 13-21 at halftime.

Junior Price Morgan contributed early in the second half, making both of his free throws at the 7:15 mark in quarter three.

The Lions continued to trail throughout the third quarter, being beat by East’s defensive line who kept the Lions’ field goal percentage down to 37.5 percent.

Coach Mike Lewis put his starting five back on the court with 4:09 left in the third when he subbed in senior Ben Rajewski for senior Logan Applegate.

With 1:53 left in the quarter after East made two, wide-open layups, Lewis called a full timeout to recompose the team.

Senior Anthony Bonner made a three coming off of the time out, then made a free throw to bring the score to 23-40. He ended the game with 18 points.

Rajewski committed a late foul, leading to one more point for East, bringing the score to 41-23 at the end of the third quarter.

Junior Justin Roberts entered the third quarter with a bang, sinking a three at 7:45 and then again at 4:33 and 2:17. Like Bonner, Roberts finished the game with 18 points.

Rajewski made up for lost ground by getting fouled at the 6:30 mark, which was followed by a play under the basket and a field goal by Roberts, bring thing the score to 29-45.

The team’s fight was well-illustrated in a gutsy play by Applegate, who saved the ball from under East’s basket, hurled it to Roberts, which resulted in a field goal by Morgan with 4:21 left in the game.

The Lions continued to look for final shooting opportunities, including a layup by Bonner with 3:20 left, upon finding a wide-open gap in East’s defense.

After Roberts’s late three, East committed a foul, which put the Lions back under their basket. Bonner took and missed a three but then got fouled and shot two at the line.

The last minute of the game was dedicated to both team’s benches when both Lewis and East’s coach Joe Jackson subbed their starters.

The LHS student section applauded their team after singing the alma mater when the players were given silver medals for their second place state finish.

Regardless of the outcome on the scoreboard, students and teachers applauded the team on a great regular and post-season.

“Of course I’ll be disappointed but it was a hard-fought season, I thought it was really cool that we’re here,” junior Daonte Lowrey said.