As far as Senior Nights go, what happened in the opening minutes of Tuesday night’s high school boys basketball game at Lawrence High was not exactly the way the home team would have drawn it up.

Down 10-0 after four makes by Shawnee Mission East and three turnovers of their own, the Lions called a timeout, took a deep breath and gathered their focus.

“They definitely hit us in the mouth first,” said senior point guard Justin Roberts, who finished with eight points, four assists and two steals in a 68-58 LHS victory. “But we just had to keep our composure. We weren’t gonna get it back with a 12-pointer. We just had to chip away.”

Added LHS coach Mike Lewis: “This time of year, you’re gonna get everyone’s best shot, and you hope, in return, that you give everyone your best shot. We didn’t do that in the first half, but we started to put it together in the second half.”

Really, the Lions (17-2) put it together after that initial timeout. Instead of watching East grow the lead after that 10-point surge, the Lions responded with a 12-0 run and, the gap between these two scrappy teams was paper-thin for the next 20 minutes.

“We always reach a point where we just kind of break, and we start to look around at each other like, ‘OK, let’s go,'” said LHS senior center Fred Brou, who tallied 12 points, six rebounds, two blocks and one exclamation-point dunk. “I think 10-0 was that point tonight.”

Tied at 12 after one quarter, LHS trailed 28-27 at halftime and did not truly assert itself until the final play of the third quarter, when Jackson Mallory (15 points, four assists, four steals) stepped in front of a soft pass and raced to the other end to beat the buzzer and put LHS up 42-39 heading into the fourth.

“Big play,” Lewis said. “That turned us up.”

Boy, did it. LHS scored nine of the first 11 points to open the fourth quarter and, just like that, led 51-41 with 4:30 to play. A game that featured a little jawing and a lot of scrapping suddenly became a cruise to victory that allowed Lewis to sub out seniors Roberts, Brou, Anthony Harvey Jr. (14 points) and Price Morgan (16 points). Even seldom-used, first-year senior Tayvien Robinson got his moment to shine, first nearly finishing a sweet pass from Brou in transition and then getting two free-throw attempts to crack the scoring column. Both clanged off the rim, but the smile on Robinson’s face never disappeared.

“I was trying to get him that dunk,” Brou said. “Finishing games out like that is a luxury we get sometimes, and it was great that we got that tonight on Senior Night.”

Before returning to The Jungle for sub-state play next week, the Lions will close out the regular season Friday at Free State.

“We still have a lot we want to accomplish,” Roberts said. “But this one did mean a lot to me. I love this atmosphere, I love this gym, and it was great to get this win.”

SM EAST (58)

Henry Sullivan 2-7 0-0 5, Connor Rieg 0-0 0-0 0, Jay Guastello 6-8 2-3 15, Mark Ward 0-2 0-0 0, Davis Morrison 6-10 10-10 24, Alex Glazer 1-2 0-0 2, Ryan Dornbusch 0-2 0-0 0, Luke Ehly 2-5 1-2 5, Trevor Thompson 3-5 0-0 7, Stanley Morantz 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-41 13-15 58.

LAWRENCE (68)

Justin Roberts 1-8 6-7 8, Price Morgan 7-10 2-3 16, Fred Brou 5-9 2-2 12, Anthony Harvey 4-6 4-6 14, Jackson Mallory 4-8 5-8 15, Braden Solko 0-0 0-0 0, Kobe Buffalomeat 0-1 0-0 0, Noah Butler 1-2 0-0 3, Tayvien Robinson 0-0 0-2 0, Austin Miller 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-44 19-29 68.

SM East 12 16 11 19 — 58

Lawrence 12 15 15 26 — 68

Three-point goals: LHS 5-11 (Harvey 2, Mallory 2, Butler 1); SME 5-13 (Morrison 2, Guastello, Sullivan, Thompson 1 each). Turnovers: LHS 11, SME 12.