Boys Basketball: R-B shakes early doldrums to top Lyons

Updated: May 9, 2012 10:04AM

Damonta Henry is used to seeing the ball go through the hoop. When the Riverside-Brookfield star missed his first five shots and Lyons jumped out to an early nine-point lead, he had to go somewhere else for help.

“I had to calm myself down,” Henry said. “I needed to play at the pace I like to play.”

After the slow start, Riverside-Brookfield (5-1) caught fire midway through the second quarter and romped to a 78-60 victory over ­Lyons in a nonconference game Friday night in Riverside.

“If I’m not hitting shots, I can drive the lane and kick the ball out,” Henry said. “We got a sense of urgency. We started playing our tempo, our game and doing what we wanted to do.’’

The Bulldogs hit six three-pointers in the second quarter, taking their first lead on a Luke Nortier three with 3:11 to go in the half. Henry got his first points with 2:37 to go and a 23-11 run spanning the greater part of the second quarter turned the early deficit into a 39-33 lead at the break.

Lyons (1-3) didn’t score for more than four minutes to start the third quarter, and Henry finally got on track. He scored 11 of his team-high 18 points in the second half as the Bulldogs ran the lead as high as 19.

“Their pressure bothered us early,” Riverside-Brookfield coach Tom McCloskey said. “We started hitting threes and it brought us back. Then, in the second half, we had a good balance inside and outside and our guys played great.’’

Louis Marino and Andrew Henley added 15 points apiece for the Bulldogs. Forward Miki Ljuboja had 14 points and Luke Nortier chipped in eight points and a team-high seven rebounds.

Kenneth Smith scored 19 points, and Joe Carroll added 14 points and eight boards for the Lions.

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