After suffering its first loss, Lawrence North traveled north on I-69 to play Homestead. The Spartans stood at 11-4 while riding a three-game winning streak.

To open the game, Shamar Avance rebounded a Homestead miss and found DJ Hughes ahead of the pack for a bucket. Following a missed three by Luke Goode, Hughes capitalized with a dunk to put Lawrence North up 4-3. It looked like Lawrence North was going to be able to play a fast paced game.

But Homestead was able to limit transition baskets from there. The Spartans also played a 1-3-1 zone to slow the pace of LN’s attacking offense. Goode was quite effective early in the game as a scorer and passer. The 2021 guard scored five points in the opening quarter along with two assists.

Goode gave Homestead the 13-12 lead early in the second quarter before Hughes dunked another one and Tony Perkins scored at the basket. Overall, scoring was tough for both teams in the second quarter. Kaleb Kolpien had a putback for Homestead to cut LN’s lead to 18-17 at the break.

The game was played in a similar manner in the third. Shamar Avance scored to put Lawrence North up three late in the third quarter. Neither team led by more than three points for the first 29:23 of the game. That’s how tight the action was. For the game, there were 13 lead changes.

Lawrence North senior Dorean Hatton hit two big three-pointers for the Wildcats in the fourth. First he connected on triple early in the period. It gave LN a one-point lead. Two minutes later, he hit another to swing the advantage back to LN again.

After the Hatton three and a Homestead turnover, Jack Keefer decided to hold the ball to get the Spartans out of the 1-3-1 zone. LN was able to melt two and half minutes off the block before Avance found Hughes for an alley oop dunk.

Lawrence North went on a 12-2 run from 6:11 to 0:17.

Lawrence North won 43-36.

Tony Perkins led LN with 14 points and five rebounds. He was 7-10 from the field. DJ Hughes added 10 points, seven rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Dorean Hatton finished with eight. Shamar Avance recorded eight points, six rebounds, and four assists.

Luke Goode was the only Spartan in double figures with 14 points. Alec Grinsfelder added nine points. Grant Simmons scored seven, and Andrew Leeper tallied four points. Zak Krueger was out with an injury.