Ellwood City Lincoln started strong and cruised to a Section 2-AA home victory over Laurel.

The Wolverines were up 16-5 after one quarter and 33-17 at the break. Ellwood City (3-7, 7-10) was coming off a 51-4 loss to Mohawk.

“It’s high school basketball and I told the kids sometimes you’re challenged,” Wolverines coach Al Campman said. “I thought they responded in a positive way.

“I’m really proud of the kids; it’s been a tough three days. The kids never lost the confidence that I believed in them. For high school kids, it’s tough to go through that. But it’s really big to come back from adversity like that.”

Laurel coach Mike Tinstman noted the difficulty of playing from behind.

“It’s tough to overcome slow starts,” Tinstman said. “Other than that, I thought we played much better the rest of the game.

“They shot the ball well in the first quarter. We started in a zone and had to get out of it.”

Brandon Lucarelli netted a game-high 17 points for Ellwood, 14 came in the first half. He handed out four assists as well.

“Brandon played his best game of the year,” Campman said. “He hit a lot of big shots and he got his hands on a lot of balls defensively.”

Matt Morella was next with 11 markers and six rebounds for the winners.

Josh Dando recorded nine points for the Spartans (0-9, 2-16).