MERRY HILL – Bear Grass shot close to 50 percent and that was enough.

The Bears rolled to a 70-55 victory at Lawrence Academy here Monday night in the Warriors’ season-opener.

Despite fighting valiantly early, the Warriors ran out of gas late as Bear Grass pulled away to the non-conference basketball victory.

&uot;We fought hard,&uot; second-year coach Robert Kravitz said. &uot;I thought we played well in the first half.

&uot;Defensively, I thought we played well, but we got a little fatigued in the fourth quarter,&uot; he added. &uot;That’s my fault, but I’ll fix that.&uot;

Judd Whitehead got the season off to a good start with a three-pointer to give Lawrence the early lead, but Bear Grass battled back with consecutive hoops by Teshawn Sanderlin.

Whitehead then buried another trey to make it 6-4 in favor of Lawrence.

The Bears responded with nine unanswereds point to surge ahead 15-6.

Gray Harrell hit a triple to get the Warriors closer followed by buckets from Whitehead and Marshall Ellis that cut it to 16-13.

Bear Grass led 22-17 at the end of the first quarter thanks to a pair of threes – one of which came from Derek Young.

The teams battled to a near draw in shooting in the second period as Lawrence was 7-of-16 from the floor while the Bears hit 8-of-16. That left the Bears with a 38-32 halftime advantage.

Bear Grass extended their advantage to 11 (55-44) in the third quarter as they held the Warriors to only five hoops while forcing eight turnovers.

Also key in the third quarter was the loss of Frank Baker, who went down to an injury. That hurt Lawrence because only seven players were available to Kravitz to begin the game.

Bear Grass hit 6-of-14 in the final period to pull away to the 15-point victory. For the game, they were 32-of-65 (46 percent).

&uot;The main thing for us was we had too many turnovers,&uot; Kravitz added. &uot;We also need better guard play.&uot;

The Warriors host Parrott Friday evening.

Bear Grass (70): Brock Harrison – 17, Teshawn Sanderlin – 14, Derek Young – 13, Eric Anthony – 10, J. Webb – 9, B. Gorham – 5, C. Parnell – 2, J. Patterson

Lawrence (55): Judd Whitehead – 22, Jobie Thomas – 12, G. Harrell – 9, M. Ellis – 6, A. Hodges – 4, F. Baker – 2, J. Harrell