Coming off three straight losses, La Salle-Peru needed a big performance and got exactly that in a rivalry win over Ottawa on Friday night.

The Cavaliers relied on good rebounding and lockdown defense to get out to an early lead and hold it throughout, snapping their three-game losing streak with one of the most complete efforts of their season against a rival team in a 55-37 road win.

“We had shots fall tonight, and the ball kind of went in our direction,” L-P head coach John Senica said. “Outside of that, I thought we played great defensively, kept the tempo up and just played well as a team.”

Senica pointed to good ball movement and maintaining pace to help open things up offensively, but mainly emphasized the importance of getting scoring contributions from multiple players.

“If you play as a team, there’s five players you’ve got to guard,” Senica said. “When you do too much one-on-one, it makes it easier on the defense. I thought we did a great job spreading things out and keeping them honest.”

Senior guard Braylin Bond had a standout double-double performance with 13 points and 13 rebounds, setting the tone early before La Salle-Peru (16-8 overall, 4-3 Interstate 8) leaned on others in the second half.

Bond said the team’s defensive effort and rebounding were points of emphasis after their recent losses.

“We played great defense tonight, great team game and a lot of rebounds,” Bond said. “It felt like everybody came together and we know how good we can be when we’re playing as one.”

Forward Jameson Hill scored a game-high 14 points, while Erick Soloto added 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

Ottawa (12-10, 2-5) struggled to match La Salle-Peru’s physicality all game. The Pirates were outrebounded by 18, a margin head coach Mark Cooper said played a major role in the loss.

“We physically had issues for four quarters,” Cooper said. “Their size and strength bothered us all game. There’s reasons you lose and we have to be able to stand up to teams physically more than we did tonight.”

Cooper said the Pirates will use the loss as a learning opportunity as the postseason nears.

Senior guard Jack Carroll paced Ottawa with nine points, five rebounds and two assists, while senior forward Owen Sanders added eight points and six rebounds.