The La Salle-Peru boys basketball team has been busy lately.

Playing their fifth game in eight days on Tuesday, the Cavaliers struggled early on.

L-P trailed Dixon throughout the first quarter and a half before eventually making a late run in the second quarter and pulling away in the second half for a 69-46 nonconference victory in La Salle.

“We’ve played five games in eight days. It’s a lot of games,” L-P coach John Senica said. “I know we don’t have our legs, but it doesn’t matter, you still have to come out and play. I think we were kind of taking plays off and that’s why they were able to do what they did. They have some good shooters. They hustled and played hard. They ouworked us in a lot of aspects of the game.

“We started to pick up the intensity (later in the game) and that’s what started to turn the game around a little bit.”

The Cavs struggled to score early as they were held without a point for the first 3 minutes and shot 4 of 13 from the field in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, Brody Nicklas scored seven straight points for the Dukes with a fast break basket and two drives to the hoop, including one where he converted a three-point play.

Dixon built an 11-4 lead and led 15-10 after the first quarter.

“I thought we played pretty disciplined and went at them right away, which is something we’ve been trying to build off of,” Dixon coach Chris Harmann said. “We’re very young this year and sometimes when games don’t start off your way, they can unravel quickly. But I give our guys a lot of credit. They competed throughout the whole first half.”

Nicklaus drained a 3-pointer with 6:11 left in the second to give Dixon a 20-14 lead.

The Dukes then forced turnovers on back-to-back possessions and got out in transition but couldn’t convert with the opportunity to go up double digits.

“We’ve done a pretty good job of forcing teams into turnovers at times, but we have not capitalized on as many of those as we need to,” Harmann said. “That’s because of decision making, ability. There’s just some things that go into it. But overall, if we don’t work hard and get those turnovers, we’re not even getting those opportunities. It’s just building blocks.”

After that, L-P scored the next 10 points to take a 24-20 lead and led the rest of the way. The Cavs pushed their lead to 29-22 by halftime.

“I felt like the momentum swung our direction and then the ball started going in the hole and the guys started to feed off that,” Senica said.

The Dukes pulled within 31-29 with 4:11 left in the third, but the Cavs responded with a 15-5 run to end the quarter to take a 46-34 lead into the final eight minutes.

“It was really just staying focused on running the plays and playing defense,” L-P sophomore Marion Persich said about what the Cavs did to pull away.

The Cavs led by as many as 25 as they bounced back from an 89-69 loss to Peoria Richwoods on Monday.

“It definitely feels a lot better than (Monday) night, but we didn’t play our best game,” Persich said. “We have two days of practice then we have Morris on Friday, so we really have to lock in at practice.”

Persich led L-P (15-5) with 20 points, while Jameson Hill and Erick Sotelo each scored 11 and John Sowers and Wyatt Kilday each came off the bench to contribute eight points.

Nicklaus scored a game-high 22 points to lead Dixon (6-14), which plays at North Boone on Friday.

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L-P's Jameson Hill drives to the hoop on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026 in Sellett Gymnasium at L-P High School. (Scott Anderson)