LEROY — The Athletics survived a rough start by hitting the boards to pull in a 63-49 win over LeRoy/Ostrander in a boys basketball game Monday in LeRoy.

Lyle/Pacelli (1-2 overall, 1-1 SEC) pulled down 20 offensive rebounds and scored nine points on put-backs in the second half alone to get the win.

“We haven’t won anything yet and nobody’s gonna lay down for us. I thought we did a great job of finding that extra gear,” L/P head coach Reid Olson said. “We were hungry and wanted it more than the other team did.”

The Cards (2-2 overall, 2-1 SEC) trailed the entire second half, but they pulled to within 39-37 with 12:37 left in the game on a score by Josh Rowe. L/P’s Brady Stier responded with a putback and a fadeaway jumper to put the Athletics back up 43-37.

Stier led the way for L/P as he scored 22, grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked three shots.

“I didn’t have a very good game last game so I knew I had to step it up and board for my team,” he said. “We knew we had to win this game to get our first ‘W.’ Now I think we’re gonna keep rolling like we did last year.”

After another score by Rowe, who finished with 30 points and 14 rebounds, L/P’s Kyle Pereault rebounded his own miss twice before putting in a shot to put the Athletics up 45-39 with seven minutes left. Pereault, a sophomore guard who had five assists Monday, gave the Athletics quality minutes all night, especially in the first half when he spelled Cody Meyer, who was in foul trouble.

“That’s a tribute to how well Kyle’s playing for us. He’s giving us some quality minutes at the point and we’re going to try to play him there more to get Cody down at the two-spot where we can take advantage of his offensive abilities,” Olson said.

Meyer, who had nine points, nine rebounds, and three assists, said Pereault’s play made life easier for him.

“I get kind of tired being No. 1 all the time so it was nice to be able to catch my breath at the two-spot while Kyle ran the point,” Meyer said.

Rowe’s 30 points were big, but L/O couldn’t get enough from its other scorers.

“Josh took it on himself to score tonight. He’s special. He can score from outside and drive inside. There’s nothing more I can ask for him,” L/O head coach Jason Herber said. “We just didn’t have enough of our guys step up offensively. It was almost like we stood around watching Josh and we can’t do that.”

The Cards jumped out to an early 9-3 lead to open the game, but the Athletics slowly crept back before Pereault hit a bank shot to put them up 27-26 with 3:08 left in the first half.

“We didn’t come out of the gates strong, but we picked it up and took off with it,” Meyer said.

The Athletics led 29-28 at the break, and Michael Lonergan hit a jumper and drove for a hoop in a span of 40 seconds to put L/P up 33-28 to open the second half.

The Cards had to play much of the night with six players as Jordan Osmundson left the game with an injury in the first half. But Herber said his team still should’ve rebounded better.

“That’s unacceptable. We didn’t check out,” he said. “I should’ve had Rowe on Stier in the second half, but I was worried about him getting into foul trouble.”

LP 29 34 — 63

LO 28 21 — 49

Lyle/Pacelli scoring: Brady Stier, 22; Michael Lonergan, 10; Justin Hutchinson, 10; Cody Meyer, 9; Matt Buntje, 8; Kyle Pereault, 4; rebounds: 45 (Stier, 12, Meyer, 9); free throws: 17 percent (1-for-6)

LeRoy/Ostrander scoring: Josh Rowe, 30; Michael Knight, 8; Dylan Mackey, 6; Kirk Nelson, 5; rebounds: 25 (Rowe, 14); free throws: 65 percent (11-for-17)