Caleb Land contests a shot from Ritchie Glass.

BRANFORD, Fla. — Injuries didn’t slow down Lafayette a bit against rival Branford on Tuesday.

Playing without leading scorer Devon Fleming, Ben Massey picked up the slack with a career-high 31 points to lead the Hornets to a 70-46 victory at BHS.

“I knew my game had to step up a little more,” said Massey, who also had a game-high five steals. “We were like, ‘we’re down four players, we got to come out and play harder.’”         

Branford outscored Lafayette 16-9 in the third quarter, but still trailed 50-35 heading into the fourth. The huge lead the Hornets built in the first half was too much to overcome for the Buccaneers.

“We concentrated on getting one stop at a time and having patience on offense,” said BHS coach Richie Frye. “When we started to do that we started taking control, but by that time we were already down too much.”

The Hornets got off to a fast start with some easy layups in transition. Tre Clark scored 10 of his 15 points in the first half while Massey poured in 19 first-half points. LHS took a 41-19 lead into halftime.

“We’re going to try and run you to death,” said Lafayette coach Ehrin Beach. “It worked in the first half.”

Branford was led by Dylan Kelley’s 15 points. Kaleb Rossin notched 14 points, six rebounds and three blocks. 

Garris Edwards chipped in with nine points and five rebounds.

The Hornets are now 6-4 and will travel to Jefferson County High School on Friday for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.  

Branford (2-8) travels to Bell tonight for a 7:30 p.m. start against the Bulldogs.