LAWRENCEVILLE, ILL. — Washington Catholic's hopes for a second win on the season ended in the opening minutes of the third quarter at Lawrenceville Saturday.

The host Indians scored the first 10 points of the second half to break away from a 29-25 halftime lead to a 62-48 decision against the Cardinals.

Lawrenceville's Austin Dorney scored a game high 24 points and led the Indians (3-8) on the boards as the hosts earned the 600th career win for coach Randy Bishop.

Bishop had coached in southern Illinois before moving to Branson, Mo. He is in his first year at Lawrenceville.

The Indians got their 10 points in the opening 2:30 of the second half after the Cardinals (1-5) had trimmed a 25-18 second quarter Lawrenceville lead to the 29-25 halftime margin.

But Lawrenceville opened its largest lead of the evening at the end of the third quarter, 50-35, and then  expanded that margin to 59-39 with 3:24 remaining.

The Cardinals cut the gap to 62-48, but that was with little time remaining.

"Those first three or so minutes of the third quarter really has hurt us this year," Washington Catholic coach John Howell said. "Those first three minutes have really been hurting us. We give up a couple of buckets and then we rush some shots, and then we give up some buckets on transition and we give up points at the beginning of the third quarter." Dorney entered the game averaging 12 per outing, and he had eight in the first half. But the Lawrenceville forward doubled that total in the Indians¹ third quarter outburst, and added eight more in the final quarter.

He also led Lawrenceville to a 38-27 edge rebounding with 14, split evenly on both offensive and defensive ends.

The Indians also split their 38 rebounds evenly with 19 on each end of the floor.

"One thing that has killed us all year and it did again was offensive rebounding," Howell said. "We don¹t box anybody out and until we do, we're going to have the same result. A lot of his points were second chance points. He is awfully hard to stop at the block or below."  The second half was little reward for a Washington Catholic team that appeared to be on a comeback trail as the first half ended.

The Cardinals trailed 14-7 with 2:58 remaining in the opening quarter, but cut that advantage to 19-14 by the end of the period.

Colten Reed scored seven of the Cardinals' first 14, but it was a balanced Cardinal offense that cut the gap to four at halftime.

Reed ended with 10 of his team high 16 points at halftime, but Jonathan Mitchell had six and TJ Hill five at the break.

"We played a respectable first half," Howell said. "We attacked them (Lawrenceville) well. When we got the ball inside, and got some touches, things were going pretty well." Brendan Purdue scored eight points in the final half to place second for Washington Catholic with 10 points. Hill had nine and Mitchell eight.

"Brendan had a nice game down inside for us," Howell said. "We've been wanting him to be more aggressive when he catches it down in the post, and he was more aggressive taking the ball to the hoop." While Howell liked the first half overall, he is still looking for an improved defense.

"We did a pretty decent job on their first possession," Howell said. ³But then with no block out, we gave them a second and third chance and that really hurt us. We¹re not going to have perfect offensive possessions every time down the floor, but on the defensive end, that¹s just turning around and blocking someone. That is a mind set when a shot goes up you have to block out. Our defense is slowly getting better, but you don¹t see that when you don¹t get the blockout." Lawrenceville also won the junior varsity game, 63-40.

WASHINGTON CATHOLIC            14 11 10 13 - 48

LAWRENCEVILLE                            19 10 21 13 - 63

Washington Catholic (48) - Reed 7 0-0 0 16, Hill 4 1-4 1 9, Mitchell 4 0-0 3 8, Boyd 0 0-00 1 0, Purdue 5 0-0 2 10, Brown 0 2-2 0 2, Neace 1 1-5 3 3.

Totals 21 4-11 10 48.

Lawrenceville (63) - Ladson 0 0-0 1 0, Dorney 8 8-10 2 24, Loed 3 0-0 3 7, Potts 4 1-2 3 9, Blagrave 5 0-0 1 12, Barnes 0 0-00 0 0, Cochran 4 0-0 1 9, Benson 1 0-0 1 2. Totals 25 9-12 12 63.

3-point goals: Washington Catholic 2 (Reed 2), Lawrenceville 4 (Blagrave 2, Loeb , Cochran).