Over about a 30-second span early in the fourth quarter at Koch Arena on Friday, three technicals were given to Derby sophomore Grant Adler, senior Emilio Valentin and coach Brett Flory.

Wichita South hit all six free throws and got a three-pointer on the ensuing possession.

The calls against the Panthers all but sealed their fate in the 80-68 loss to South in the City League vs. AVCTL basketball challenge.

“We did keep playing, to their credit,” Flory said.

The loss snapped Derby’s five-game winning streak — Derby beat Newton 90-71 on Tuesday. But there had been hopes to win another before the midseason tournament in McPherson on Jan. 18-20.

The first half was an equal battle between the Panthers and the Titans. While South led by as many as 10 points, the Titans led 40-35 at the half.  But South started pulling away in the second half and led by as many as 28 before Bryant Mocaby’s flurry of threes late in the game.

“They shot the ball tremendously,” Flory said of South. “They were a fantastic team tonight the way that they played.”.

Derby senior Tyler Brown scored a game-high 30 points against Newton, and Mocaby, a senior, scored 29 against South. Improvement is now aimed at the defense.

“What we have to do is look in the mirror at ourselves defensively and see obviously they found it easy to score against us — what do we got to do to fix that,” Flory said.

Derby is 0-2 in two meetings against South since 2015.