Dixon came out hot Friday night at Lancaster Gym. But it only took Sycamore one minute to turn things around.

The Spartans scored 11 points in the final 59 seconds of the first half to flip the game on its head and take control in an eventual 71-59 victory over the Dukes.

“We just flipped a switch as a team,” said Marcus Johnson, who nabbed eight steals. “Sometimes you come out and the energy’s just not the same in an environment that’s not your own, so you’re just not feeling it. We came out tonight and it was like that, but a switch flipped in us and it fired us up for the rest of the game.

“We just felt the urgency. We couldn’t let their lead get too big, and we weren’t going down without a fight. That’s what did it for us.”

Dixon (2-7) led 23-13 with 4:51 left in the second quarter after a jumper by Beckham Rock and a fast-break layup by Zander Wilson capped a 10-0 run. The Dukes still led 27-20 with 2:04 left before halftime after a fast-break layup by Brody Nicklaus.

But Sycamore (8-1) closed the quarter with a flurry. Xander Lewis drove the baseline for a layup before Marcus Johnson nabbed a steal a halfcourt and went in for a dunk.

The final minute was chaos as Nicklaus – Dixon’s main ball-handler – subbed out and the Spartans pounced. Johnson swiped four steals that led to four layups – two by him and two more on putbacks by Isaiah Feuerbach – and Lewis added a 3 off a steal of his own in an 11-0 blitz that gave Sycamore a 35-27 halftime lead.

“This is our third game in four days, so we’re kind of tired and we came out slow. We realized that we can’t let that happen, so we just amped it up,” Lewis said. “Turnovers were a huge factor in that comeback. We know they’re a young team, so we turned up the pressure to get them throwing the ball all over the place.”

“We knew they were going to come out in a 1-2-2 [zone], so on offense we looked it over and moved the ball pretty well for a little bit,” Dixon’s Brady Feit said. “But then that little stretch at the end of the second quarter – all those turnovers back to back – kind of hurt us and got us down a little.”

The Spartans were able to keep the Dukes at arm’s length the rest of the way thanks to a balanced offense. Lewis finished with 23 points, three steals and two assists, Johnson had 19 points, eight steals, six rebounds and two assists, and Feuerbach finished with 14 points, five rebounds and two steals. Josiah Mitchell battled foul trouble the entire second half, but still had nine points, five rebounds and two steals.

“I think the key [on offense] was definitely just that fact that we moved the ball around,” Lewis said. “We had to stop forcing 3s and attack the basket. We have so many assets in the team that you can’t guard all of them, so if we move the ball around and don’t force bad shots, we’ll always find a good shot.”

“We love to see people building up, scoring a bunch of points and contributing,” Johnson added. “It makes us really hard to guard, because you can’t focus on everybody. Usually teams don’t have three or four defenders that can really guard, so having those third and fourth scorers is really big for us.”

Dixon used some mini runs to keep the pressure on, but couldn’t get over the hump. A layup by Feit and a 3-pointer by Jimi Gosinski cut the deficit to five, then a 3 and a putback by Wilson and a layup by Xavion Jones got the Dukes within 43-40 midway through the third quarter.

“At halftime, we went into the locker room and I saw on a lot of the guys’ faces that they really wanted it,” Nicklaus said. “We got really excited and fired up, and we were able to come back and still put up a fight through that third quarter. We’re a young team, but we’re really growing, and I’m really happy with how we bounced back from our mistakes tonight.”

The Spartans answered with a 13-3 run to close out the third, and the Dukes got no closer than 11 the rest of the way. Sycamore finished with 21 points off of 16 steals and forced 27 Dixon turnovers.

Nicklaus hit four 3s and led Dixon with 17 points and nine assists while also adding four rebounds. Jones had 12 points and seven rebounds, Wilson added eight points and seven boards, and Feit finished with eight points.

“It was pretty tough playing from behind, but our team didn’t give up,” Feit said. “We really could’ve just shut down and thought, ‘OK, this game’s over,’ but we kept fighting. That’s a good team – they’ll probably go to a sectional – and I thought we put up a good fight for them tonight.”