And yet again, it went down to the wire.

As has been commonplace in recent years, Tonganoxie and Lansing needed overtime to decide their Tonganoxie Invitational tournament game.

In 2003, the teams played two games to overtime, with Lansing winning both.

On Saturday, overtime again didn’t work in the Chieftains’ favor. Lansing outscored THS, 8-5, in the extra quarter and claimed the 49-46 win. The victory meant Lansing placed fifth in the tourney as the Lions pushed their record to 4-6. Tonganoxie, meanwhile, dropped to 3-8.

Tonganoxie sported a 24-18 lead at the half, but the Chieftains couldn’t hold onto it.

Jeff Slater led the Lions with 22, while Sam Mitchell led Tonganoxie scorers with 20.

The two teams met again Tuesday in Tonganoxie and will play for the third and final time on Feb. 11 in Lansing.

Results of Tuesday’s game can be found in next week’s edition of The Mirror.

Tonganoxie 47, Eudora 40

The scrappy bunch from Tonganoxie put together a big game against the team that knocked the Chieftains out of substate last year.

The game was close throughout, but Eudora’s only lead in the second half was 26-25 in the third.

“We haven’t played like this all year,” said senior Kirk Rodell. “Even in our two wins.”

Yes, the wins have been hard to come by lately for Tonganoxie. The squad was 2-2 early in the season, but has struggled recently — until Thursday in the consolation game.

The low scoring affair might not have been a thing of beauty to some fans, but THS coach David Walker said he’s happy with his team’s style of play.

“We’re not going to have pretty wins,” Walker said. “But if we have ugly wins, we’ll take them.

Tonganoxie led, 43-39, late in the game when Rodell fouled Eudora’s Mark Abel on a three-point attempt. Eudora was in good shape as Abel headed to the line, but he made just one of three shots. Mitchell then missed a free throw at the other end of the court, but Eudora again had to foul and during his second trip to the line, Mitchell sunk both of his free throws as Tonganoxie secured its lead.