LHS senior Preston Scheibler (35) hugs junior Dorian Green during the Lions' sub-state victory at Leavenworth High. At left is Bobby Davis; at right is James Easter. The Lions upended second-seeded Leavenworth, 70-57, Thursday at Leavenworth and advanced to the sub-state finals against Olathe North.

Leavenworth ? Lawrence High’s boys basketball team spent all week studying DVDs, highlight films, comparing notes and changing schemes for this one opportunity. They even had three pages of scouting information printed up for the bus ride to their first round sub-state matchup Thursday night.

So when the Lions met No. 2 seed Leavenworth High in the teams’ second game in two weeks, Lawrence didn’t just know everything the Pioneers were going to throw at them – they knew seemingly before plays were called.

The result was a 70-57 victory that shocked everyone in Leavenworth’s gym. Everyone except the Lions.

“I just think everybody right now is believing,” Lawrence coach Chris Davis said. “Everybody is feeling good, and it’s carrying over. Now we’re playing as good of basketball as anybody.”

Not bad for a bunch that once was 6-10 and staring up at nearly everyone in the Sunflower League.

While the seedings indicated otherwise, Thursday’s contest hardly felt like an upset. Lawrence led nearly wire to wire, holding off one final Pioneers rally to claim its fourth victory in five games.

“It felt like we had the game in our hands the whole time out there on the court,” Lions point guard Dorian Green said.

Green played almost every minute, scoring a game-high 27 points on 7-of-13 shooting, while big man John Schneider added 11. Lawrence fans have come to expect that. But the Lions also got key contributions from their role players. Lance Kilburn scored 13 points, and Jared Vinoverski tallied 11, including seven crucial points in the third quarter.

“Seeing how we play, teams try to take away John and Dorian, so we have to have other people step up,” Vinoverski said. “I think tonight we did that.”

Lawrence looked like an entirely different team than it did even a month ago – in part because it played a brand new, specially designed defense.

In the teams’ first matchup, Leavenworth’s Caprest Rhone burned the Lions for 25 points, including 15 in the first quarter.

On Thursday, Lawrence’s Baba Diallo was in Rhone’s face from the opening seconds, as the Lions came out in a diamond-and-one defense on him. Rhone never got untracked. He scored no points in the first half and finished with eight on 2-of-9 shooting.

“It was one of those things where we didn’t know if we were going to run it only five minutes,” Davis said, “but it was so effective that we just stayed the course.”

Without Rhone’s scoring, Leavenworth still managed to take a 13-11 lead on Zack Riggins’ layup to begin the second quarter. But the Pioneers barely sniffed the rim the rest of the half. Kilburn’s two free throws began a 14-0 Lions burst to help them close the half up 25-13.

The lead expanded to 20 points before Leavenworth (16-5) cut it to five in the fourth quarter. Lawrence responded at the free-throw line, making 20 of 24 attempts in the final eight minutes.

At 10-11, the Lions – almost improbably – now stand one game away from the state tournament. And it will be played in Lawrence’s gym. They’ll take on Olathe North, which upset Free State High on Thursday. Game time is set for 7:45 p.m. on Saturday.

“We get to go back to play in our home gym with a chance to go to Emporia,” Green said. “You couldn’t ask for anything better than that.”