Shawnee Mission West junior forward Justin Austin topples over Lawrence High senior guard Robbie Wright during the second half Friday, Feb. 13, 2009 at Lawrence High.

It did not take too terribly long to crack the code that was the Shawnee Mission West boys basketball team’s strategy against host Lawrence High on Friday night. From the opening tip, the Vikings’ goal was abundantly clear: Slow the game down to a trickle, eliminate any kind of Lions transition game, and hope for the best.

And for a long while — before a late LHS surge helped the Lions pull away for a 53-38 victory and improve to 8-8 this season — things seemed to be going according to plan.

“It was completely different from what we want to do,” said senior Dorian Green, who overcame a slow start to finish with a game-high 14 points. “It was frustrating. But we were able to come out in the second half and get some easy buckets.”

While the Lions trailed just once Friday — during a short stretch in the second quarter — the score remained close throughout, thanks largely to the game’s pedestrian pace and a lack of flow offensively for LHS.

Lawrence attempted just 18 shots and scored 17 points in the first half, settling for three-point attempts and entering halftime with a narrow 17-15 advantage.

The Lions received a much-needed spark after intermission, however, in the form of senior forward Robbie Wright, whose long-range shooting helped snap to life a Lions team that, up to that point, had been fairly dormant.

Wright connected on three three-pointers in the final three minutes of the third quarter to push Lawrence’s lead to 33-25 and seemingly alter the momentum of a previously tight game.

“We hit a couple threes, and that tends to really spark us,” Lawrence High coach Chris Davis said. “When we get a couple to go, it’s like the lid comes off the basket.”

From there, Green quickly morphed back to his usual form. After scoring just five points on 1-of-5 shooting through the first three quarters, he scored nine in the final eight minutes, including a three-pointer with 3:28 left that pushed the Lions’ lead to 45-34 and subsequently shut the door on a Vikings’ comeback.

With just four games remaining in the regular season, the next of which comes Tuesday at home against Olathe North, the victory also gives Lawrence a leg up in the race for home-court advantage heading into the postseason.

“That’s huge,” said Wright, who finished with 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting, “because we’re going to need any advantage we can get if we’re going to make another run in sub-states.”