It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.

The Lyle-Pacelli boys basketball team erased a night’s worth of struggles when it finished off Schaeffer Academy with a 15-5 run over the last four minutes in a 75-65 win in Pacelli Gym Monday.

The Athletics (7-8 overall, 4-6 SEC) trailed 62-61 when Skylar Meyer, who had 17 points and 13 rebounds, gave them the lead for good when he converted a post move for a score. David Diang, who had 21 points, pushed the lead to 66-62 when hit a 15-foot jump shot with 2:36 left in the game.

Meyer and Diang helped carry LP’s offense in spurts throughout the night as the two played well off each other.

“We work a lot on our fast breaks in practice and we think alike,” Meyer said. “We just see each other and we’re always talking to each other.”

The Athletics trailed by as many as nine early in the second half, but Max Brennan, who had 10 points and nine rebounds, helped get the comeback going when he converted a three-point play on a post move to make it 42-36 with 15:09 left.

Jordan Hart added a three-pointer that cut the lead to 44-39 with 14:34 left.

“I wish we’d start that way instead of having to wait until the tail end,” LP head coach Casey Anderson said. “We came out flat and I could tell right when I saw these guys before the game. But they responded in the second half and I have no complaints.”

The win avenges an 64-61 overtime loss by the Athletics to the Lions (4-9 overall, 3-7 SEC) in the second game of the season.

“We shouldn’t have lost to them at the beginning of the season,” Meyer said. “We had foul trouble, we were out of shape, and we came out flat. There was no reason for that.”

SA 35 30 — 65

LP 31 44 — 75

LP scoring: David Diang, 21; Skylar Meyer, 17; Damien Haugen, 11; Max Brennan, 10; Jordan Hart, 10; Steven Juenger, 3; Jonah Rohne, 3; free throws: 56 percent (18-for-32); rebounds: 36 (Meyer, 13; Brennan, 9)