Prairie Village ? It didn’t matter that opposing players were fired up and the crowd turned into a loud roar, Lawrence High’s boys basketball team refused to back down on Tuesday.

Nothing went right for the Lions in the first half. They struggled to shoot the ball. They didn’t get the calls they wanted. They couldn’t stop Shawnee Mission East’s offense.

But in the second half, the Lions fought back and rallied for a 57-49 victory at SM East. It was the Lions’ first win against the Lancers in four years.

After trailing by seven points at halftime, the Lions flipped a switch when senior guard Anthony Bonner was called for an offensive foul midway through the third quarter.

“It really lit a fire under us,” Bonner said. “It was time to go.”

After walking down the court following the charge, Bonner, junior point guard Justin Roberts and senior guard John Barbee began clapping their hands. They were fired up to play defense, and the second-ranked Lions (18-1) responded with a 15-6 run over the next five minutes to take a 39-36 lead.

Bonner scored seven points in the stretch, slashing past defenders to the rim and knocking down a three-pointer. Roberts scored his first points of the contest with a layup-and-the-foul bucket, and junior forward Price Morgan added five straight points.

“I would say, for me personally, it was almost the most aggressive, hyped-up game we’ve been in because we were just having some bad calls,” Morgan said. “We weren’t going to lose tonight. Guys really stepped up, got mentally tough and we did what we had to do.”

In the fourth quarter, the Lions led by two points with 2:47 remaining after SM East junior Jay Cuastello and junior Ryan Dornbusch knocked down three-pointers on back-to-back possessions. But the Lions tightened up defensively, which led to points on offense. Senior guard John Barbee scored on a fast-break layup, catching a full-court pass from Morgan. Then Bonner grabbed a steal and went coast-to-coast for a layup to help LHS pull away.

“We just needed a couple of good things to happen to just fuel us at the defensive end,” LHS coach Mike Lewis said. “We’re better on offense once the defense gets going. We just didn’t have much momentum. It was a little choppy in that first half.”

The Lancers (11-8, ranked No. 10 in Class 6A) face-guarded Bonner and Roberts in the first half, limiting their scoring. That led to Barbee taking advantage with drives to the hoop for layups and scoring eight points.

In the second half, Barbee started racking up assists. He drove, drew the help defense, and dumped off a few passes to Morgan. Barbee finished with 10 points, six rebounds and four assists.

“I could say that chemistry could go on with anybody on any given night,” said Morgan, who scored 12 points and had seven rebounds. “Tonight it was just us two. J-2 (Barbee) was out running the lanes. I found him. He found me a couple of times. We just made things happen.”

The Lions shot 70 percent from the field in the second half (14-for-20), using their defense to score in transition. Bonner scored 16 of his game-high 20 points in the second half and after picking up the offensive foul early in the third quarter, he made his final six shots.

“We were facing adversity,” Bonner said, “and I just thought to myself, ‘This is my last Tuesday game with these guys. One of my last games. I’ve got to step up. I’ve got to make my mark.’ My teammates played great and we just kept feeding off of each other.”

The Lions will welcome Free State to LHS for the City Showdown at 7 p.m. Friday.

LAWRENCE (57)

Justin Roberts 2-7 3-3 7, Price Morgan 5-7 2-4 12, Ben Rajewski 2-4 0-0 6, Anthony Bonner 8-12 2-5 20, John Barbee 5-8 0-2 10, Fred Brou 1-1 0-0 2, Anthony Harvey 0-2 0-0 0, Logan Applegate 0-1 0-2 0. Totals 23-42 7-16 57.

SHAWNEE MISISON EAST (49)

Jack Flint 3-9 3-4 10, Henry Sullivan 0-1 0-0 0, Gunnar Englund 5-10 1-2 11, Jay Guastello 4-13 1-1 10, Davis Morrison 5-10 0-0 13, Ryan Dornbusch 2-2 0-2 5. Totals 19-45 5-9 49.

Lawrence 10 10 19 18 — 57

SM East 13 14 9 13 — 49

Three-point field goals: Lawrence 4-10 (Rajewski 2, Bonner 2); SM East 6-15 (Morrison 3, Flint, Guastello, Dornbusch). Turnovers: Lawrence 8, SM East 10.