The first game against his former team was a rough one for Lawrence High girls basketball coach Jeff Dickson, as the Lions fell to Shawnee Mission Northwest, 50-28, Tuesday at LHS.

Lawrence High found itself in a 13-0 hole after the first four minutes and 17 seconds and could not fully recover.

“We’ve had stretches throughout the season where we’ve been very tentative against top-notch teams like Shawnee Mission Northwest,” Dickson said. “Even though we came out and I thought we played OK defense early, our offense wasn’t great.”

Senior Marissa Pope ended the Lions’ scoreless drought with a free throw, and sophomore Skylar Drum drove to the basket for Lawrence’s first field goal late in the first quarter. The Lions clawed back in the second quarter as they shook away some of their nerves from the first eight minutes to cut the deficit to 26-16 at halftime.

Junior Alexis Boyd battled down low with the Cougars’ bigs and scored six of her team-high nine points in the first half. Boyd’s points did not come easily, as the Cougars had a rotation of four players in the front court who were 6 feet or taller.

“We did step up and play with a lot more intensity and were able to hit them with a little bit of a run and get the game close again,” Dickson said. “It felt pretty good going into halftime.”

But that feeling did not last long. The Cougars pounced on the Lions coming out of the break, outscoring LHS 16-1 in the third quarter.

“Obviously whatever I say before the game and at halftime maybe isn’t the right thing because they came out and hit us with another run and that pretty much put the game away,” Dickson said.

Tatum Graves, the Cougars’ tallest player at 6-feet 2 inches, scored a game-high 14 points and fellow forward Brenni Rose added 12 points and six rebounds to help put the Lions away.

The Lions still hung tough with the Cougars on the boards. Senior Rebecca Finley grabbed seven rebounds, and Boyd and junior Gracie Reinsch each pulled down three apiece.

“They worked their butts off,” Drum said. “They did a great job boxing out and getting rebounds. Even if it wasn’t in their vicinity, they were going after it and getting it for us.”

Dickson was proud of how the Lions competed, especially during stretches of the second and fourth quarters, and sees some parallels to his LHS squad now to that of his Shawnee Mission Northwest team a few years back.

“I’m here now and trying to help this program get to that level,” Dickson said. “My heart is with our kids who are working so hard and trying so hard and are desperate for success, much like Northwest was four years ago.”

The Lions (3-12) will host Olathe Northwest on Friday.

“That team I think is an extremely talented team that plays kind of a different style than what you see on an everyday basis,” Dickson said of the Ravens. “They shoot just a ton of threes. They play a super high-tempo type game.”

SMNW (50)

Brooklyn Wagler 2-9 2-2 6, Arielle Jackson 1-5 0-0 3, Shelbie McLain 1-1 0-0 2, Emma Van Donselaar 1-1 0-0 2, Emmalee Rose 0-1 0-0 0, Gena Ojeda 0-3 0-0 0, Tatum Graves 7-10 0-2 14, Danielle Rehor 1-6 0-0 3, Brenni Rose 4-7 2-5 10, Tracy Monahan 2-3 2-4 6. Total 19-39 6-15 50.

LAWRENCE (28)

Olivia Lemus 0-5 0-1 0, Skylar Drum 4-8 0-3 4, Madison McKinney 2-3 0-0 5, E’lease Stafford 2-6 0-0 4, Marissa Pope 2-5 2-6 6, Matia Finley 0-2 0-0 0, Gracie Reinsch 0-4 0-0 0, Asia Goodwin 0-1 0-0 0, Alexis Boyd 4-9 1-3 9. Total 12-42 3-13 28.

SMNW 20 6 16 8 — 50

Lawrence 5 11 1 11 — 28

Three-point goals: Lawrence 1-11 (McKinney) SMNW- 2-17 (Jackson, Rehor). Turnovers: Lawrence 16 SMNW 7.