Mason Lockett drove to the basket, absorbed contact and fell to the ground, a look of frustration on his face as the ball trickled out of bounds and a turnover ruled.

It was that kind of afternoon.

Oswego East struggled mightily to score in the first quarter at the When Sides Collide Shootout at Benet, managing just four points.

Lockett got it going from there, scoring 24 points, but the Wolves’ early struggles bled over to their defense.

New Trier overwhelmed Oswego East 82-51 in the first of four games at the event, a running clock throughout the fourth quarter.

“We came out flat,” Lockett said. “We were down 19-4 after the first quarter and it was hard to build our way back up.”

The Wolves (14-7) shot just 2 for 9 in the first quarter with four turnovers, which led to a number of easy New Trier baskets.

The Trevians (16-6) ended the first quarter on a 15-0 run and scored the first basket of the second quarter for a 21-4 lead.

“We scored four points in the first quarter; that’s not going to help you,” Oswego East coach Ryan Velasquez said. “Turnovers and missed layups. We had two really good practices coming in. I felt good coming into today.”

New Trier has been without its best player, Princeton commit Christopher Kirkpatrick, since December with an injury. Kirkpatrick and Lockett, a DePaul recruit, are two of the better players in Illinois’ senior class.

The Trevians didn’t miss a beat without their star.

New Trier hit seven 3-pointers in the first half. When the Trevians were not hitting from deep, they were slicing Oswego East up with lobs for layups at the basket.

“It was mostly their 3-point shooting,” Lockett said. “We were trying to front the post and have help on the back side. We had to guard their shooters and they were able to throw over us.”

Danny Houlihan, a 6-foot-4 senior, scored 24 of his 28 points in the middle two quarters for New Trier. Matthew Logue added 11.

All five New Trier starters are between 6-foot-4 and 6-7, and that size had its way near the basket. The Trevians scored 30 points in the second quarter for a 49-24 halftime lead and shot 63% over the middle two quarters.

“We have to be more connected defensively,” Velasquez said. “We really wanted to take [Houlihan] away, and I thought we did a good job of that in the first quarter.

“We were defensively not where we needed to be against a team like that. Got to clean some stuff up.”

Lockett missed three of his first four shots, but got rolling after that.

He scored 12 of Oswego East’s 20 points in the second quarter, seven more in the third and finished with 24 points.

Dshaun Bolden added seven for the Wolves.

“I felt like the team was looking for and needed me and they tried,” Lockett said. “But it’s hard to come back from that deficit.”

Oswego East, with a future Big East player in Lockett, has been a frequent guest at shootouts the last two months, playing in four of them.

The Wolves have lost three of those games, but Lockett found the silver lining.

“It helps a lot,” Lockett said. “The teams that we have played there are the best we have seen. Our conference is not bad, but at these shootouts we’ve been able to see teams at a higher level.

“I’ve been looking forward to playing in this event since the schedule came out.”

Oswego East looks forward to a busy week, home games with Joliet West Tuesday and Bolingbrook Friday in conference, and a nonconference game at Lincoln-Way Central Saturday.

“We need to get better in a lot of areas,” Velasquez said. “I told the guys they need to keep their heads up. How do we want this stretch to end? Tough game, but I’m not going to give up.”