The Lakeland High School boys’ basketball team came out ahead against visiting Nansemond River High School on Friday, winning 66-49 in the first cross-city confrontation of the boys’ 2014-15 season.

“I thought it was a good comeback win, especially after losing to Western Branch (High School),” Cavaliers senior point guard Kenya Latham said.

Lakeland had lost 67-57 on Thursday to the visiting Bruins, a result Cavs coach Clint Wright felt came in part from his team looking ahead to the Warriors. He was willing to take the blame for not having them prepared and focused, but was pleased to see those issues disappear on Friday.

“I feel relieved,” he said after the win. “I feel that we didn’t have any lagging effects from last night. I shared with the guys in the locker that we can’t play in spells.”

The Cavaliers were coming off of two consecutive losses after opening the season with two wins.

“We were hungry,” Lakeland junior forward Deonta Knight said, who led his team with 18 points and 10 rebounds to go with four assists.

Nansemond River entered this season as the underdog among the Suffolk public schools, with limited experience and size, but its 4-0 run coming into Friday’s game had been anything but that of an underdog.

“I think that 4-0 is a tribute to (NR) Coach (Ed) Young,” Wright said. “He didn’t make a basket, he didn’t make a jump shot, anything like that, but that 4-0 is him.”

Wright said he and his staff did some unofficial scouting to become aware of the great three-pointing shooting that has helped fuel the Warriors’ early success.

“Naturally, we wanted to make sure they didn’t have open threes,” he said. “They got a few.”

Young noted his team shot a season-low 27 percent from the field, including 19 percent from three-point range. The Warriors were out-rebounded, had nine shots blocked and did not defend well on the perimeter.

“We didn’t do anything right, and I knew we had to play our best ball here to beat them,” he said.

The loss for Nansemond River also broke a precedent for Young’s tenure with the team.

“I’ve never lost to Lakeland three times in a row,” he said.

Wright was not taking the victory for granted, and cited several standouts who helped make it happen.

He praised junior guard Daquan Boyette for playing with an edge, sophomore guard Jerry Goodman for some timely three-pointers, senior forward Larry Everret for splendid offense off the bench, senior forward Irvin Ashburn for his shot-blocking and shot-altering defense and senior forward Wesley Arrington for sound defense.

“Kenya had some phenomenal no-look assists and things like that, and those things break teams down when you thread needles and it’s fast,” Wright said. “I thought Coach Young had to change his defense often to try and counteract some of the things that we were trying to do. But it all boils down to the fact that we were dialed in.”

On Tuesday, Lakeland (3-2) visits King’s Fork High School, while Nansemond River (4-1) visits Oscar Smith High School.