MODESTO – Noah Lyons hit his fourth 3-pointer of the night late in the third quarter to give Manteca the lead for good on the way to a 50-45 win over Downey in opening-round action of the Third Annual Mark Gallo Invitational at Central Catholic’s Gallo Health and Fitness Center.

Lyons hit for 14 points behind four 3-pointers and his go-ahead bomb was the third lead change in the final 50 seconds of the third period.

“That was a clutch 3,” Lyons said of his fourth from beyond the arc at the end of the third quarter. “Mehtaj Mehrok got it out to me.

“I wouldn’t have got any of those 3-pointers without my teammates kicking it out to me.”

The biggest lead of the night was for the Buffaloes (3-3) at nine points near the end of the second quarter. There were four lead changes and two ties in the game, with the biggest lead for the Knights (6-4) being at 10-7 in the first period.

“Our defense has been pretty good and pretty consistent,” Manteca coach Jason Hitt said. “We work on it every day. We have to find ourselves now and our bench guys – our young guys that haven’t really played varsity basketball – have to be able relieve those other five guys a little bit as we are waiting for Trey Moreland to heal up from football.

“Downey is a good, athletic team. They are coached well and this is a good year for them. They have beat a couple of good teams already and if you sleep on them they are going to beat you. I like the way we finished and our rebounding as we got 36 boards tonight and we got to the free throw line as well. We have been struggling to get to the line as we have been avoiding the contact necessary to do so.”

Manteca’s Ryan Inderbitzin led all scorers and flirted with a double-double at 18 points and nine rebounds with three blocks.

“We were working hard as a team and we just did what we had to do to secure the win,” Inderbitzin said. “We played our best defense and I couldn’t have done what I did without my teammates because they found me open.

“They were very physical but we just had to work through it and be smart with the ball.”

Downey may have been physical, but the Knights were unable to sustain their presses for very long.

 “For as athletic as they are, I am surprised they didn’t press more,” Hitt said. “But we played them over the summer. They have seen us and we have seen them.”

Mehrok added nine points, eight rebounds and three blocks with teammate J.T. Chase chipping in seven rebounds, five assists and two steals.

Fayzon Allen and Lloyd French led Downey with 12 points apiece.

Thursday at 3:30 p.m. the Buffaloes face the winner of today’s Lathrop-Atwater game.