With a 23-22 halftime lead, the Mehlville Senior High School boys’ basketball team pulled away from John Burroughs in a 55-49 victory over the Bombers last week in the Chaminade Christmas Tournament.

The Panthers (5-4, 1-0 Suburban West) had four players score in double figures in what could easily be tabbed as one of Mehlville’s best performances this season.

“We had a good, balanced attack,” Mehlville head coach Andy Guethle said. “Burroughs had a good season last year and brought everyone back for this season. But had we hit more free throws, we could have won by a lot more.”

Mehlville was led by senior forward Aaron Alexander’s 15-point performance.

He is averaging 11.1 points per game.

“Aaron played well and he’s got to carry a lot of our scoring load on the inside game this season,” Guethle said. “He’s got a lot of intangible qualities, which is starting to pay off.”

Mehlville senior forward Jurgen Rama scored 12 points, well above his 6.8 points per-game average.

“Jurgen is a senior guard that really knows every position on the court and tonight we had him play at forward,” Guethle said. “His hard work is really paying off for him, which is really good to see.”

Junior guard Kendrick Sharp and sophomore guard Matt Browning each scored 10 points for the Panthers.

“Kendrick and Matt are two solid guards that handle the ball really well for us,” Guethle said. “They’re both very unselfish players.”

The Panthers are back on the road at 7 p.m. Friday when they travel to Northwest (3-6, 0-1 Suburban West) for a Suburban West Conference match-up with the Lions. Northwest is coached by Guethle’s brother, Matt.

“They’re always a well-coached team,” Guethle said. “Northwest has been playing good defense, so we’ll really need to execute our offense against them.”