The Sweet Home boys basketball team used a complete effort to end its three-game losing skid.

The Panthers outscored Orchard Park, 19-6, in the fourth quarter to earn a 60-57 road win Friday.

“It was a good team win,” Sweet Home coach Scott Martin said. “We had endured a lot of hardships throughout the year in terms of not having our full complement of players for games. We let some close games get away by not playing a complete game.”

Sweet Home swept the regular-season series with OP, winning, 69-62, at home Dec. 13.

Friday’s contest was tied at 28-28 at halftime, but the Quakers outscored the Panthers, 23-13, in the third quarter — including a 7-0 run in the first 1:20 — to take a 51-41 lead into the final quarter.

“We’ve been devoting a lot of time in practice to team defense,” Martin said. “Allowing 23 points in a quarter is too much, but we played better defense in the first, second and fourth quarters.”

It didn’t help that Sweet Home’s biggest player — Rashaad Rogers — sat out most of the third quarter because of foul trouble. He came back in the fourth and scored eight of his 12 points.

“When he’s in the game, he makes a big difference for us,” Martin said.

Sweet Home took its first lead of the second half — 58-56 — with 1:38 remaining in regulation. OP made a free throw to make it 58-57.

Sweet Home sealed the win with a turnover that led to a layup from Kole Gilchrist (15 points) on a pass from Jayson Moore with about 41 seconds left.

The Panthers got balanced scoring. Besides Gilchrist’s 15 and Rogers’ 12, Dakari Singletary added a season-high 11 and Mike Torrillo had a career-high 11.

“Mike was the floor leader in the last two and a half minutes,” Martin said. “With about 37 seconds left, there was a loose ball that Dakari Singletary got his hands on right on the baseline, and as he was falling out of bounds, Mike called a timeout. That was huge. Instead of them getting the ball down one, we keep possession, and now they have to come after us as we tried to run out the clock.”

Sweet Home (4-8, 3-5) hosts West Seneca West at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

“We need to keep our momentum going into sectionals,” Martin said.

email: pnagy@beenews.com