Lawrence High's E'lease Stafford takes the ball up the court against Shawnee Mission North after a steal during the second half on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015 at Shawnee Mission North.

Overland Park ? First-year Lawrence High girls basketball coach Jeff Dickson got everything he could hope for out of his Lions on Tuesday night at Shawnee Mission North, and with his downtrodden team firing on all cylinders, the Lions beat a Sunflower League team for the first time in nine tries this season.

Senior LHS guard Marissa Pope ran the show on offense, sophomore guard Olivia Lemus and junior forward Alexis Boyd provided scoring punch, freshman forward E’lease Stafford did a bit of everything, and senior twin post players Matia and Rebecca Finley controlled the glass in a 57-43 victory.

“It was a good team win,” a happy Dickson said afterward. “Marissa was the best player on the floor by far — broke down their defense. They were sending two, three, four people at her the entire night, bumping her and hitting her, and she did such a great job of sharing the ball and getting people active and involved.”

Pope, now in her fourth year of starting for the Lions, scored seven points but also drew a charge, played relentless defense and dished eight assists.

The point guard had hoped to get everyone in an LHS uniform going, and that was the case early and often. Lemus hit three first-half three-pointers on the way to a game-high 14 points, but she was just one of six players to score as the Lions started hot, building a 21-12 lead early in the second quarter.

Said Pope of the balance: “It takes the load off some of our leading scorers so they don’t have to do it all. It just gives everybody a taste of scoring.”

More importantly, Dickson said that’s the style the Lions (4-13) need to play.

“We don’t have any one dominant player,” he said. “We try to share the ball and be unselfish, and I thought that made us very dangerous tonight, because if you did try to double or something like that, we did a good job of finding the open man, and we were able to score.”

Inside, Boyd routinely faced up and converted, hitting six of nine shots and finishing with 13 points and six rebounds.

Starter Matia Finley hit four of seven field goals for eight points in the paint but played an even larger role defensively, securing 11 rebounds and contesting shots. Rebecca Finley, a sub, had seven boards of her own.

Pope enjoyed seeing the trio of post players produce.

“They’re incredibly important, especially the twins. They rebound like crazy, and they’re unselfish,” Pope said. “And then ‘Lex just finished all her shots for us.”

Stafford contributed five points, but also moved the ball well, blocked a shot and came away with three steals and three rebounds.

Backup sophomores Madison McKinney and Skylar Drum each added five points off the bench.

LHS, already up 45-34 entering the fourth quarter, forced SMN to miss its first 10 field goals of the quarter, and the Lions led by 20 before emptying the bench.

Said Dickson: “For us, no matter who we’re playing, if we hit a few shots early on, we’re in that game all the way through. In the games where we’ve really struggled this season, it’s when we’ve gotten off to a really poor start, and we’ve gotten down.”

Lawrence (57)

Olivia Lemus 4-8 3-5 14, E’lease Stafford 2-9 0-1 5, Marissa Pope 2-6 3-5 7, Matia Finley 4-7 0-0 8, Alexis Boyd 6-9 1-2 13, Skylar Drum 2-5 1-1 5, Rebecca Finley 0-2 0-0 0, Madison McKiney 2-3 0-0 5, Asia Goodwin 0-2 0-2 0. Totals 22-51 8-16 57.

SM North (43)

Jazmin Williams 2-10 0-4 4, Shelbye Sweet 2-11 1-2 6, Jade Williams 1-6 1-2 3, Maddy Wood 1-4 2-4 4, Sissy Hobson 3-7 1-1 9, Danasia Jones 2-3 1-2 5, Lexi Epperheimer 4-8 0-0 10, Jolee Williams 1-7 0-2 2, Corrie Naughton 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 16-57 6-19 43.

Lawrence 17 13 15 12 — 57

SM North 12 7 15 9 — 43

Three-point goals: LHS 5-16 (Lemus 3, Stafford, McKinney); SMN 5-14 (Hobson 2, Epperheimer 2, Sweet). Turnovers: LHS 21, SMN 15.