The Lyle-Pacelli boys basketball team was not going to let two opportunities slip away.

LP let a lead slip away at the end of regulation, but it bounced back to beat Houston 54-49 in overtime in Pacelli Gym Thursday.

The Athletics (7-14 overall, 6-11 SEC) erased all doubt early in the extra session as Jordan Hart knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers to put LP up 51-45 and Hart finished a strong drive to make it 53-48 LP with 30 seconds left in the game.

“I felt comfortable going up and taking some shots,” Hart said. “Some of them didn’t feel very good and I probably shouldn’t have taken them. The ones that did feel good, I’m glad I took those ones.”

Hart finished with 23 points, six rebounds and five steals in the win and sophomore Noah Jiskra added 20 points for LP.

The Athletics took a 43-40 lead when Hart buried a 3 with three minutes in regulation, but they didn’t score again in regulation. LP missed the front end of a one-and-one three times in the last minute as Houston (5-13 overall, 5-9 SEC) came back to tie things up.

“If we make a free throw the game’s probably over and we have to do a better job of closing out the lane on defense,” LP head coach Dean DeBoer said. “Overall, I thought we kept our heads pretty well and we gave ourselves a chance to win in overtime.”

Houston could’ve taken the lead, but it missed three free throws in the last 10 seconds, including one that would’ve put them up by one with 2.5 seconds left.

LP played at a much better level in overtime.

“These close games have not gone our way so far this year,” Jiskra said. “When we got into overtime, we wanted to go for a win and turn the tide.”

LP has won three of its last five games and the team is starting to control the pace better. It had just 11 turnovers on Thursday, while forcing 21 turnovers.

“At the beginning of the year, we really didn’t know what our spots were,” Jiskra said. “But going into practice and working on these sets has really given us a lot of confidence to slow down the game and take the good shots.”

DeBoer is pleased with what his backcourt is giving him right now.

“You don’t want to turn the ball over and I thought we made good decisions tonight,” he said. “Our guards are really playing at a high level right now.”

Houston 17 26 6 — 49

LP 22 21 11 — 54

LP scoring: Jordan Hart, 23; Noah Jiskra, 20; Jordan Cotter, 5; Mark Manyuon, 4; Braden Kocer, 1; free throws: 53 percent (9-for-17); rebounds: 27 (Hart, 6); turnovers: 11