The four-hour drive home from Joplin on Saturday was mentally exhausting for Butch Clark.The Liberty Christian boys basketball coach replayed his team’s 69-65 overtime loss in the state championship over and over, breaking it down a little more each time.The Eagles finished second in the Missouri Christian Schools Athletic Association for a second straight year, this time losing to upstart Life Church of Kirksville.“It always hurts a lot more to lose a close one than get blown out,” said Clark, whose team lost 57-41 in last year’s title game. “You dwell on the close ones a lot longer, and think about the what-ifs.”Clark’s analysis revealed a couple of glaring culprits, particularly the Eagles’ inability to hit free throws. They converted just 11 of 21 attempts at the charity stripe.“I told the guys it’s almost impossible to win a close game when you’re not hitting free throws,” said Clark. “That was pretty well our undoing right there.”He also points to the opportunity the Eagles had to win the game in the final minute. Deadlocked at 59-59 with 45 seconds remaining, Clark decided his team should take the final shot.“We had them exactly where we wanted – tied game with the ball,” said Clark.He turned to a play called “Pitt” that he’d drawn from a college basketball game earlier in the season, feeling it would be effective against Life Church’s 2-3 zone.“We were getting a lot of good looks off that this year,” said Clark. “We’d had great luck with it, so I thought we should run that.”The plan was to overload the weakside and attack the basket once the opposition’s defense collapse.But an unexpected wide open jump shot presented itself, and senior Tanner Meyer watched his shot fall short.“It’s unfortunate to lose, but I’m very proud of my teammates and thankful to be a part of this team,” said Meyer, who finished with 28 points. “I feel like the work we put in really paid off, because some aren’t as blessed to even make it this far.”Liberty Christian led first in overtime, but Life Church regained control, and the Eagles were forced to foul.Clark says the opportunities were there, but his team had to overcome an early matchup problem and never established itself inside, despite a height advantage.Facing the dangerous brother combo of Noah and Aaron Talton, the Eagles gave up 27 points to the duo during the first half. The trapping defense that had worked much of the season was proving unsuccessful this time around.“We started off with a fullcourt trap in the first quarter and then in the second quarter we went to halfcourt, before dropping it altogether by halftime,” said Clark.Trailing 37-33 at the break, Clark went back to the drawing board.“We had to switch to man to man and it worked,” said Clark. “You hate to change your gameplan the last half of championship, but if it’s not working you’ve got to do something.”Liberty Christian won the final two quarters, but Clark says his team didn’t turn to 6-foot-4 senior Calvin Edwards enough.“Part of the problem was we weren’t really doing any damage inside,” said Clark. “We had the advantage there and didn’t use it.”Edwards finished with 21 points and 16 rebounds, but Clark felt his presence could have been used more.“They couldn’t match up with him physically,” he added.Meyer netted 28 points and dished out 11 assists, becoming the school’s all-time leader in the category.He and Edwards were both named to the all-state tournament team.“I had more fun coaching those guys than some of our great teams we had at Warrenton Christian,” said Clark. “They worked their tales off and had good attitudes.”The Eagles advanced to the title game by beating Providence 68-35 during semifinal action on Friday.Edwards finished with 20 points and eight rebounds.Meyer added 15 points, while eighth-grader Andrew Voss netted 13 points.Liberty Christian opened the tournament on Thursday with an 86-22 win over Community Christian.Voss scored a team-best 21 points, while sophomore Jake Pietzman added 17 points.Freshman Logan Hart netted 12 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.Edwards added 10 points.“If anybody would have told me in beginning of year that with 9 seconds left at the end of the season we’d have a shot to win the title game, I’d take that every time,” said Clark.MEYER NAMED TO ALL-STATE TEAMDerrick Forsythe photo.