photo by: David Rodish/Journal-World

Eddie Roman Nose passes the ball to the wing during the Lawrence boys basketball team's 78-38 season opening win over JC Harmon on Friday at Lawrence High School.

Lawrence High School fell behind early and struggled to come back in an 82-64 loss to Shawnee Mission North at LHS on Tuesday.

The Lions (1-1) got off to about as fast a start as possible in their first two possessions, with Aden Ramirez and Eddie Roman Nose hitting 3-pointers. After that, it was tough sledding. The Bison prevented entry passes to the paint while attacking the rim and getting to the free-throw line on offense.

After an early 6-6 tie, the Bison finished the quarter on a 15-8 run. Three of the Lions’ five first-quarter field goals were 3-pointers, but the team’s inability to hit those shots consistently hurt the scoring output.

“We learned that we need to be more mentally locked in throughout the entire game,” coach Nick Wood said. “There were just some times we just broke down. And that’s part of the learning experience. We just have to learn from those mistakes.”

The second quarter was more of the same as the Bison extended their lead to 14. The Lions got to the free throw line several more times in the quarter but couldn’t slow the Bison down offensively. By halftime, the Bison led 42-28.

Lawrence had its best play in the third quarter. More 3s from Avery Johnson at the start brought the game within nine points. Ramirez also hit a 3, and Roman Nose scored six points. While the Lions had several successful runs with some forced turnovers, the defense largely struggled to contain Shawnee Mission North’s guards, who could drive and get points or a foul call.

Roman Nose scored the most in the final quarter, adding nine points to reach his total of 25. Wood said that the Lions will rely on Roman Nose in numerous ways this season and that the guard’s impact extended beyond his ability to score at multiple levels.

“I thought Eddie showed a lot of resilience this evening — I don’t doubt for one second how much Eddie cares,” Wood said. “It’s important for him to play really hard. We need him for the entire game to help lead us in a wide variety of ways.”

The Lions had a final push around the halfway mark of the fourth quarter, but the team couldn’t pull the comeback off. Instead, the Bison extended their lead to 18, primarily through free throws in the game’s final minutes.

A positive from the game was the team’s multiple runs to cut the Bison’s lead to single digits. While the Lions couldn’t sustain those runs in a way to fully come back, they showed Wood that the team can fight.

“They hung in there and showed some fight and spirit,” Wood said. “We talked before the game, and we needed 32 minutes to be the best version of ourselves. There were about six or so minutes where we were pretty dang good.”

Wood hopes his team can learn from the result. As disappointing as the loss was for the team, Wood’s message to the team was simple: The goal for the season is to peak in March, and it’s a process to get there.

Lawrence will next play on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Olathe South.