Downers Grove North star guard Campbell Thulin stepped to the free throw line, inhaled deeply and then exhaled.

The momentary rest wasn’t because she was tired.

“No, I do that before all of my free throws,” Thulin said. “It’s something my brothers told me to do, just to calm down and catch my breath and then shoot the free throw like I always do.”

Thulin sank the free throw, then repeated the process before swishing her second attempt. The charity shots with 5.1 seconds left completed the scoring as the Trojans knocked off host Lyons Township 41-32 on Saturday in La Grange.

Thulin didn’t win the West Suburban Conference Silver Division game single-handedly, but she nearly outscored the Lions by herself, finishing with 29 points. She made 11-of-14 shots, including all six attempts in the second half, and was 5 of 8 from the line.

“She should probably shoot a little bit more,” Downers North coach Stephan Bolt said. “She really likes to get other kids going and I love that about her and her game. But she should shoot more.”

The rest of the Trojans attempted only 17 shots, with senior forward Ady Fanta, who scored 10 points, and sophomore Caitlin Sandridge, who had two points, the only others to score for North.

The Lions (14-5, 4-3) were playing without leading scorer and rebounder Emma O’Brien. The 6-foot-1 senior forward suffered a potentially season-ending knee injury in LT’s win over York on Friday night.

But the Trojans still had trouble breaking down the LT defense. The game was tied 15-15 at halftime.

“I think it was more so reading the defense,” Thulin said of the slow start. “I was kind of rushing myself in the beginning of the game and we weren’t really playing together.

“We were kind of all over the place, so I think we really gathered ourselves at halftime and kind of just said we need to play our game.”

The Trojans (17-2, 6-1) were able to do that in the third quarter. After sophomore Sydney Munson hit a 3-pointer to give the Lions a 20-19 lead, North senior guard Gianna Goodwin made a crosscourt bounce pass through the lane to Thulin, who drained a 3-pointer from the right wing at the 2:35 mark of the third quarter.

“She’s a really good passer,” Thulin said of Goodwin. “Her vision for the floor is really good.

“We’re firing on all cylinders when we’re just moving the ball side-to-side. It opened up a lot more with my teammates moving and cutting.”

LT senior forward Anna Bigenwald scored on a putback to tie it at 22, but Thulin sank another 3-pointer to begin a 10-2 run by the Trojans.

The Lions battled back behind senior forward Gwen Smith, who had a team-high 16 points, including a turnaround jumper to cut the gap to 35-31 with 58 seconds left.

“It was tough to get anything going offensively,” Bolt said. “I feel terrible about O’Brien, but they’re still a very good team without her and Gwen is a load.

“So I’m proud of us for finding a way to get it done down the stretch and good to see Campbell knock some shots down and get us going a little bit.”

LT coach Meghan Hutchens said it had been an emotional 24 hours for the Lions after the Cornell-bound O’Brien was injured.

“Our kids were absolutely destroyed when it happened,” Hutchens said. “They were able to finish the York game, take the win and come here.

“I’m very proud of this group and like I told them in pregame, this is going to be the hardest of all of them without a practice.”

The Lions used gritty defense to turn the game into a rock fight.

“I thought (the Lions) defense was awesome,” Hutchens said. “They really committed to the game plan and I really do think they’re still playing for Emma and for themselves. But really, they just want to make everyone proud.”

Thulin was proud of her team’s effort.

“It was a good game,” Thulin said. “They came at us and I was really proud of our team being able to continue to fight back and not let up.

“We have a lot of things to clean up, so we’ll be ready next week to get back to practice, but we’ve been playing really good.”