LB boys’ basketball returned to action on Friday night after an 11-day break from the court. Despite the long layoff, the team showed no signs of rust against the Annandale Atoms, jumping out to an early lead and cruising to a 71-59 victory.

Annandale started sluggishly, and the Bruins were able to capitalize on this. They led 18-11 after the first quarter and 37-18 at halftime.

“Once we got a lead on them, they got a little frazzled,” Butler said. “They weren’t playing a very fundamentally sound game.”

Sophomore guard Corey Pelham outscored Annandale’s entire team in the first half, 19-18. LB employed an inside-out offensive scheme to take advantage of the generally undersized Atoms. When Annandale defenders started swarming the post, LB would simply kick it out to the perimeter, leading to four first-half threes from Pelham.

“I was feeling it from the beginning in warmups,” Pelham said.

LB was outscored in the second half as Annandale started pouring in three-pointers. Senior guard Austin Hall led all scorers with 31 points, nearly shooting the Atoms back into the game in the fourth quarter.

“We were trying to guard Hall, but he was able to squirt by us and dish to other guys,” head coach Brian Metress said. “Some guys who haven’t made many threes all year were making them.”

However, Hall’s efforts proved too little, too late. The Bruins improved to 9-2 with the win, and now they prepare for a three-game slate this upcoming week. They play at West Potomac on Monday, at home against T.C. Williams on Tuesday, and at South County on Friday.

“We won’t have a lot of time to prepare (for these games),” Metress said. “Hopefully, we’re prepared already.”

Photos by Andrew Clinton