After a half of near-even basketball, the Great Plains Lutheran Panthers pounced on their unsuspecting opponent Monday night.

GPL dominated the second half, allowing just one third-quarter point, on the way to a 51-29 non-conference boys’ basketball win over North Central at the Trinity Lutheran School Gym.

“One of our strengths as a team is we’re there for each other on defense,” said GPL guard Brody Scharlemann. “If one of us messes up, or a guy gets burned past us, we know that our teammates are going to be there to help us, so we just have to trust in each other.”

Leading 24-19 at the break, the Panthers held North Central without a field goal for nearly 12 minutes of the second half. By the time the Thunder made a basket, the margin had ballooned to 42-22.

“They came out with way more energy than us,” said North Central’s Rayor Sprague. “We just weren’t ready for it.”

The Thunder managed just three Sprague free throws in the third quarter and first half of the fourth quarter as GPL forced turnovers, contested shots and then denied second-chance opportunities.

“I think it was just more attention to detail and just doing what we know we need to do,” said GPL coach Mike Haugly of the difference between the two halves, “the stuff we drill every single day, and just being defensively locked in.”

Certainly, the GPL defensive energy was much higher in the second half and the Thunder had a difficult time matching it.

“We didn’t really match the second half their intensity. They really ratcheted it up and we didn’t move well enough and execute,” said North Central coach Scott Heyne. “We had a lot of unforced turnovers. A lot of credit to their defense, but we did a lot to ourselves, too.”

Meanwhile, Great Plains Lutheran’s balance was on display on the other end of the floor as all five starters scored in a 12-1 surge to start the third quarter.

“One of the things about this team is we have depth. We have different rotations,” Haugly said. “We’ve been hit with sickness. We’ve been hit with injury. Our point guard (Micah Holien) had surgery on his knee today. It’s been one of the challenges of the season, but they just keep on rising up to the challenge.”

One of the players that rose to the challenge was Scharlemann, who led all players with 16 points, in addition to grabbing six rebounds and dishing our numerous assists.

“All around a really good game, offense and defense, really utilizing his agility to make things happen, put stress on the defense,” Haugly said. “Sometimes that led to him getting some buckets, sometimes that led to him facilitating defense into offense, all the way around. I’m just really proud of how he stepped up.”

Without Holien in the lineup, Scharlemann said he felt like he had to help fill the void.

“I knew I was going to have to take a little bigger role when our starting point guard had surgery today,” Schlaremann said. “I knew I had to step up a little bit.”

Sprague, Donovan Nelson and Dawson Walz each finished with six points for the Thunder, who found points hard to come by, especially in the second half.

“It’s very frustrating,” Sprague said. “We can make those shots, but it just wasn’t our night tonight, they didn’t fall.”

The contest was a mirror of how things have transpired for the Thunder so far this season, according to Heyne.

“That’s how it goes for us. Our season has been like that,” Heyne said. “The ball goes in the hole, we can be pretty competitive with most teams we play. We got some good lucks, you can’t fault a lot of the looks we got, we just didn’t make them.”

North Central has one more regular-season game left, taking on Sully Buttes Friday, before heading into the Region 6A tourney.

“We just have to move past this one,” Sprague said, “watch film see what we did wrong and go from there, get ready for the playoffs.”

GPL, 12-7 on the year, faces Wilmot to close out the regular-season and then heads into the Region 2A tournament next week.

“We’ve got one more regular-season game left on Friday and then playoffs on Tuesday,” Scharlemann said, “so hopefully this game builds up to that and we play good on Tuesday.”

NORTH CENTRAL (5-13): Donovan Nelson 3 0-0 6, Brady Beitelspacher 0 2-2 2, Raynor Sprague 1 3-4 6, Kobe Wherry 1 1-2 4, Cole Beitelspacher 2 0-0 4, Dawson Walz 2 2-2 6. Totals 9-42 8-10 29.

GREAT PLAINS LUTHERAN (12-7): Jarret Bauer 1 0-0 3, Brody Scharlemann 8 0-2 17, Hayden Karli 2 1-2 5, Alex Heil 3 2-2 8, Landon Czerwan 1 0-0 2, Martin Kranz 2 0-0 4, Austin Rubendall 2 0-0 4, Myles York 4 0-0 8. Totals 23-60 3-5 51.

North Central 10 19 20 29

Great Plains Lutheran 6 24 38 51 3-point field goals – Sprague, Wherry, C. Beitelspacher; Bauer, Scharlemann. Total fouls – North Central 7; Great Plains Lutheran 11. Rebounds – North Central 32 (Sprague 7, Walz 6); Great Plains Lutheran 34 (Scharlemann 7, Heil 6, York 6). Turnovers – North Central 26; Great Plains Lutheran 12.