photo by: Andrew Rosenthal

Lawrence junior Mayson Quartlebaum (10) boxes out Gardner Edgerton's Brody Marshall (4) in a game on the road on Jan. 4.

GARDNER – Four strong quarters of offense propelled the speedy, hot-shooting Lawrence Lions to a 76-57 win over Gardner Edgerton on Friday night.

LHS, which is ranked No. 3 in Class 6A via the coaches poll, is now 4-1 on the season.

With three players netting double-digit scoring efforts, the Lions only found their shot more as the game went on. Senior Clarence King scored 20 points, senior Trey Quartlebaum scored 15 and sophomore Zeke Mayo scored 11. Quartlebaum led the team in 3-pointers with three.

“If you don’t play selfish, everything will just come to us,” King said. “They’re pretty good, I like playing with people that’s good. It just makes me play better when they’re playing good. Once I see that they’re making shots, they’re on tempo, it makes me feel like I can do more.”

The Lions scored on over half their shots for a 58-percent clip from the field, finding chances to score on nearly every possession they had. They made an effort to take loose balls to the basket and score off of steals in transition.

“I was okay with our defense,” head coach Mike Lewis said. “Our help side, we struggled with a couple possessions from the backside of it. Our energy was good and our feel tonight was a good start to the new year.”

Lawrence started to get into foul trouble late in the game, allowing Gardner Edgerton to close the gap to 12 points off 14 free throw attempts. Thanks to a strong bench in Willie Dotson, Mayson Quartlebaum, Bryce Johnson and Garrett Hart, the Lions pulled away late in the game with a 24-point fourth quarter and won by more than 20.

The Lions also had a good night from the free-throw line themselves, netting 11 points on 14 attempts. Neither Mayo, Quartlebaum nor Bryce Johnson missed a free throw.

Mayo would catch a lot of loose balls off deflections, Brett Chapple and Quartlebaum had a strong presence in the paint to limit the Trailblazers’ second-chance shots off rebounds.

“If they’re stepping up on (defense), it makes me want to step up. I don’t want to let them down because they don’t want to let me down. We connect together and we play as a unit,” King said.

Coming off a long break, Lewis was proud that his team has not slowed down.

“If we can score 76 points in a night, we’re okay as long as we’re playing defense, and our defense was solid tonight,” Lewis said. “Lots of room to improve with it being the new year, but just coming back after being off that long, I’m content with where we were tonight.”

Lawrence travels to face Olathe East at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Lawrence (76)

Zeke Mayo 3-10 4-4 11, Clarence King 8-14 2-4 20, Brett Chapple 4-5 0-1 8, Trey Quartlebaum 6-10 0-0 15, Eric Galbreath 1-1 0-0 2, Willie Dotson 1-2 0-0 3, Mason Quartlebaum 3-4 2-2 8, Bryce Johnson 2-2 3-3 7, Peyton Mallory 0-1 0-0 0, Bryant Graham 0-0 0-0 0, Garrett Hart 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 29-50 11-14 76.

Gardner-Edgerton (57)

Ethan Reynolds 4-6 0-0 10, Teven McKelvy 2-10 6-6 11, Tyler Rollwagen 3-7 0-0 7, Luke Jennings 3-4 2-2 8, Brody Marshall 4-5 0-0 9, Taylor Warner 4-8 2-2 10, Preston Rohr 0-2 2-4 2, Jake McClure 0-1 0-0 0, Matt Beyer 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-44 12-14 57.

Lawrence 18 17 17 24 – 76

Gardner Edgerton 13 10 16 18 – 57

3-point goals: Lawrence 7-21 (Quartlebaum 3, King 2, Mayo, Dotson); Gardner-Edgerton 5-9 (Reynolds 2, McKelvey, Rollwagen, Marshall). Turnovers: Lawrence 5, Gardner-Edgerton 10.