So when the combatants came out of the locker room for the second half, the Northern Lakes Conference game was there for the taking. The Bobcats took it.

Knotted at 26-all, Florence opened the second half on a 17-2 run to go up 43-28 and held off a few partial Goodman-Pembine runs to defeat the Patriots 63-50 to complete a regular-season sweep.

It was a game that ebbed back-and-forth. Florence coach Bryan Bomberg called an angry timeout about four minutes into the game with his team trailing 7-0.

“I think they might have been in their heads a little bit,” Bomberg said of his players. “The thing was, last year we lost to them both times on our home floor, so I think that maybe they came out and were pressing a little too much.”

Bobcat defender Logan Schuls (23) puts pressure Goodman-Pembine’s Ryan Erickson (4) and prevents Erickson from being able to find an open teammate, forcing a turnover on a five-second count call during second-half action Tuesday night on Florence’s home floor.

The Bobcats (10-3) got back into the game rather quickly after the timeout, but the Patriots (7-3) led for much of the half. After senior Boone Larison hit a 3-pointer after his own offensive rebound, Goodman-Pembine led 26-21. However, a subtle shift took place in the final 90 seconds that would change the game afterward.

For 17 minutes, Florence did not break down the Patriots’ 3-2 zone very well. But in the final portion of the first half, that changed. The Bobcats utilized the short corner far better, off of drives by the guards or by entry passes to the mid-post. And it worked like a charm, especially in the early minutes of the second half when Patrick Milan, the closest thing Florence has to a baseliner finisher, scored two layups and split a pair of free throws to lift his team to a 31-28 lead.

“Actually (that adjustment) came right before halftime,” Bomberg said. “One of our players was sitting on the bench and he said to (assistant coach Kris) Johnson and I to run this set. And we did. We got a couple of good looks to get us tied back up and then we just continued with that It just worked for us and that’s why we trust our players.”

On the other side, the Patriots began to overdribble and force shots. They scored just two points in the first eight minutes of the second to fall behind by 15.

“Just inconsistency,” Patriots coach Jeff Zerbst said. “It’s been a little bit of the story of our team this year, where we have moments where we’re playing really well and then there’s other times, for whatever reason, we’re just not bringing it.

“We knew they would adjust at halftime. (But) if we play team defense they way we’re able to play, that adjustment wouldn’t have mattered. We just came out little slow after halftime.”

Zerbst switched from the 3-2 to a 2-3 at one point, but Florence sophomore Logan Schuls buried consecutive 3-pointers from the left wing to mess up that plan.

The Patriots eventually whittled the deficit to nine, but the Bobcats ran off two straight one-minute possessions to work the clock.

“They sat back in that 3-2 and we were in the double-bonus and they were not coming out to guard us so why are we going to settle?” Bomberg said of the move to run clock. “We’re going to make them come play us. That was the logic behind that.”

Goodman-Pembine senior Landon Kalkofen sank a layup to slice the gap to 57-50, but DeMuri and Evan Johnson hit a pair of free throws each and Milan sank a layup to account for the final score.

“On a normal night, we average about 70 points per game,” Zerbst said. “Our offense was sluggish and we turned the ball over way too many times.

“They just had more fire in their belly,” he added. “And that’s more of a leadership thing that I need to figure out.”

Johnson and DeMuri led the Bobcats with 16 points each. Larison topped all scorers with 19.