Lawrence High's E'lease Stafford (40) splits the defense between Notre Dame de Sion's Madline Dercher (15) and Anaiya Uhde (30)

On the first possession of Friday’s game, Lawrence High sophomore Chisom Ajekwu missed two point-blank shots and Notre Dame de Sion scored the opening basket on its first possession.

That turned out to be the only time the Lawrence’s girls basketball team trailed and one of the only times Ajekwu was stopped in the post.

At 6-foot-3, 4 inches taller than anybody on Notre Dame de Sion, Ajekwu used her size to her advantage while scoring 28 points on 12-of-18 shooting in a 51-39 win at LHS.

“I would never underestimate a team because of size,” Ajekwu said. “I did have an advantage, and I took advantage of that. I’m learning not to get pushed around in the box and how to work for it.”

The game was tight for the first seven minutes. Lawrence High (3-0) led 11-6 and had turned the ball over seven times. But over the next seven minutes, the Lions went on a 14-0 run, which was sparked by four consecutive makes from Ajekwu, to take a 25-6 lead.

Notre Dame de Sion (1-1) shot just 3-of-28 in the first half because LHS was content to give up jump shots instead of driving lanes.

“They’re really aggressive and like to get to the line, so we were playing off of them a little bit,” coach Jeff Dickson said. “I thought we took away some of their better shooters and force people they don’t normally rely on to make shots.”

On the contrary, the Lions shot 14-of-29 (48 percent) in the first half. Junior Talima Harjo, who is normally their first player off the bench, missed the game due to an illness, so Dickson said he was happy to see Tamo Thomas find her shooting stroke. Thomas scored all seven of her points in the first half.

In the second half, Dickson said his team settled for jumpers too often, which got his team out of sync offensively and led to them shooting 5-of-16 in the half.

The Storm disrupted the Lions’ rhythm by playing a zone defense that limited Ajekwu’s touches in the second half. Seniors Olivia Lemus and Skylar Drum, who Dickson said can both “flat out shoot it,” shot a combined 2-of-11, and weren’t able to make the Storm pay for leaving them open.

Although Dickson said this was the Lions’ best game of the season so far, he acknowledged there are still some lessons to be learned, but he’s glad it happened in a win instead of a loss.

“We know we can play better,” the coach said. “We need to do a better job of finishing games as we move along and play a complete game, but we’ll take it.”

Lawrence will play host to Wyandotte at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

LAWRENCE (51)

Hannah Stewart 0-2 2-2 2, Olivia Lemus 2-8 2-3 7, Skylar Drum 0-3 1-2 1, Leslie Ostronic 0-0 0-0 0, Sammy Williams 2-3 0-0 4, Tamo Thomas 3-4 1-1 7, Asia Goodwin 0-1 0-2 0, E’lease Stafford 0-5 2-3 2, Chisom Ajekwu 12-18 4-8 28. Totals: 19-45 12-20 51.

NOTRE DAME DE SION (39)

Madeline Dercher 2-9 0-0 5, Marie Orrick 0-4 0-0 0, Sarah Totta 1-11 0-0 2, Amaya Adams 7-14 6-9 20, Afton Fennewald 0-4 0-0 0, Abby Smith 1-2 0-0 2, Anaiya Uhde 3-9 3-7 10. 14-53 9-15 39.

Lawrence 13 17 7 14 — 51

Notre Dame de Sion 6 7 11 15 — 39

3-point goals: Lawrence 1-13 (Lemus); Notre Dame de Sion 2-18 (Dercher 1, Uhde 1). Fouled out: None. Turnovers: Lawrence 20, Notre Dame de Sion 11.