Topeka ? During Kristin Mallory’s seven years as head girls basketball coach at Lawrence High, she’s seen some pretty darn good quarters of basketball.

And in Friday night’s season opening 38-29 win against Washburn Rural, one quarter may have topped them all.

“I thought the second quarter might have been the best quarter that a team of mine has ever played,” Mallory said. “They moved the ball really well, they pushed it really well and truly defended about as good as I’ve seen. I was very impressed.”

The Lions held the Junior Blues to just three points in that second quarter and nine points total in the first half on a meager 3-for-20 shooting. During that span, Lawrence turned a horrid start and one-point deficit into a 22-9 halftime lead thanks to a 13-0 run sparked by guards Haley Parker and Cassandra Potter.

Parker was particularly potent from the field, scoring more points than the entire Junior Blues team in the first half. She made all four of her shots and scored 10 points in the first 16 minutes.

All this coming against a Junior Blues team ranked in some polls as high as third in the state in Class 6A.

“Before the game, we were all telling each other how nervous we were, but when the tip went off, we were just fine,” Parker said. “The intensity was great, and it was a good test because not all games will be this intense.”

Yet for all the Lions did well in the first half, they nearly gave the lead up entirely in the second half.

LHS diligently built its lead to 15 points before Washburn Rural’s LaSharra Riley almost single-handedly revived the Junior Blues. Her 13 second-half points from the post whittled the Lawrence lead all the way down to four.

Fortunately for Mallory, she said she knew she could count on her ballhandlers. Mallory left it to her guards to dribble out the clock on the Junior Blues in the closing minutes.

“The girls made great decisions on the floor,” Mallory said. “Down the stretch, those kids are real experienced, even the young ones. I can’t say enough about the decisions they made in the final five or six minutes.”

Parker led the Lions with 12 points, while sisters Danielle and Taylor Bird each scored eight. Riley was the only player to score more than five points for Washburn Rural, which shot 24 percent from the floor.