Lawrence High's Dorian Green puts up and hits a fadeaway jumper over the outstretched arms of Shawnee Mission Northwest defenders during the second half of the game Friday, Dec. 19, 2008, at Lawrence High.

The line did not move at halftime.

It did not creep closer, widen out or even scooch back an inch or two.

Lawrence High just became a little more comfortable behind it.

After making just one of eight three-pointers during a sluggish first half, the LHS boys nailed eight of 14 in the second half, including six in a 26-point third quarter. The barrage led to a 64-56 come-from-behind victory against previously unbeaten Shawnee Mission Northwest and moved LHS to 3-2 overall and 1-0 in Sunflower League play.

“We shoot 100 threes each just about every day,” said LHS senior Dorian Green, who finished 4-of-8 from downtown with 34 points. “It’s just a shot we expect to make.”

Never was that clearer than during the decisive third quarter. Trailing, 31-24, at the break, the Lions fell behind by 10 when Northwest’s Ryan Arel opened the third quarter with a triple of his own. LHS senior Robbie Wright answered Arel’s three with one of his own, paving the way for the Lions to transform a 10-point deficit into a nine-point lead with five more three-pointers during the third quarter.

Wright’s second of the quarter cut the SMNW lead to 34-30. Green followed suit on the Lions’ next trip to cut the lead to three. Lance Kilburn soon found his rhythm from deep with a pair of triples, and Green added one more from way out before the quarter ended.

“That gave us a good spark,” Wright said. “And getting the momentum from our shooting was huge. That’s a good team, and we got the win.”

For much of the first half, it was the Cougars who played the part of the aggressor. Arel finished the half with 17 points — on 5-of-9 shooting — and the Cougars outhustled the Lions to the offensive glass throughout the first two quarters.

“At half, the thing that was killing us was heart,” Green said. “They wanted it more than us.”

That changed drastically in the second half, as the Lions outrebounded the Cougars by eight and showed more tenacity and intensity on both ends.

“We definitely wanted it more in the second half,” LHS coach Chris Davis said. “Especially defensively. We didn’t change a thing at halftime because I thought we were playing pretty well; our shots just weren’t falling, and we were getting outrebounded. In the second half, we stopped shifting defenses and played the same defense the entire way. That really took (SMNW) out of what they wanted to do. That might be the best I’ve seen us play defense since I’ve been here.”

While the Lions were tightening the screws on the defensive end, Green was loosening things up on offense. One week after scoring 37 points in a loss to Blue Valley, Green poured in his game-high 34 on nine fewer shots. He scored in every way imaginable: at the free-throw line, from three-point land, in the paint and via fade-aways over sinking defenders.

“This game has been circled on our calendar all year,” Davis said. “We’ve been waiting for this one, partly because of redemption and partly because we know what a great measuring stick Shawnee Mission Northwest is. And I feel pretty good about where we’re at.”

Next up, the Lions (3-2) will play at Free State (1-4) at 7:30 tonight in a game that won’t count in the league standings but will count in just about every other way possible.

“Any time these two teams get together, it’s really special,” Davis said. “This is a great game to play before the break.”