Uncharacteristically sloppy and cocky to open Thursday night's game at Class 3A DeLaSalle, Lakeville North's girls' basketball team received a rather harsh talking-to from coach Andy Berkvam during a timeout midway through the first half.

The defending Class 4A champion Panthers had just gone up by four points on the Islanders, but the way Berkvam – his face growing redder by the second – laid into his team, you might have thought it trailed handily.

Whatever Berkvam said, it eventually worked.

Lakeville North clung to a two-point lead into halftime, then outscored DeLaSalle 37-4 over the final 18 minutes for a runaway 64-29 victory.

"We talked about desire and ... not worrying about ourselves," Berkvam said. "We weren't doing that at either end of the court that first half, which was frustrating. We can't continue to do that and get away with it."

Senior center Apiew Ojulu took over in the early part of the second half. She scored nine of the Panthers' first 11 points to go along with two steals during a 19-0 run over the first 7 minutes, 11 seconds.

"I just needed to take my time," said Ojulu, who finished with a game-high 21 points. "I wasn't scared in the first half, but maybe more hesitant."

The Panthers can ill afford to play in that way during its next two games. They take on perennial power Hopkins in the Breakdown Tip-Off on Saturday, then play Eden Prairie next Friday.

"It was a totally different team," Berkvam said of the two halves. "A good lesson for them going forward."

DeLaSalle was without starting guard Mia Loyd for much of the game. The newcomer from Virginia, who moved to Minnesota this summer when her father, Curtis, took a job with the Gophers women's team, injured her left knee and was unable to return. Islanders coach Faith Johnson Patterson said she is hopeful it was only a "twist."