Devin Brown turned his ankle in the first quarter before battling back to finish with a team-best 17 points, and Levi Davis hit a pair of free throws with 6.5 seconds left to all but seal the deal as the Olentangy Orange boys basketball team picked up a solid 59-54 non-league win over host Westerville North on Thursday.

The Pioneers (7-0), who had beaten all six of their previous opponents by at least 20 points, looked halfway human for the first time all season as the Warriors (6-2) jumped out to a 9-2 lead thanks to a trio of early three-pointers — one from MC Walker and the others from Tai Perkins.

Things got worse for Orange before they got better as Brown, who was off to a strong start with four early points, landed awkwardly on his ankle at the 3:30 mark of the opening quarter.

He returned three minutes later, though, and immediately scored inside to make it a one-point game in the final minute of the quarter. Perkins drilled his third three-pointer of the quarter to beat the buzzer and make it a 16-12 game after one, but Orange didn’t take long to take its first lead — a lead it never relinquished.

A three-point play from Keegan Knupp sliced the deficit to one early in the second before four straight points from Brown — two free throws and a hard-earned hoop underneath the bucket — gave the Pioneers a 19-18 edge with just more than five minutes left in the half.

A Davis lay-in extended the lead to 21-18 before Brown and Treyton Schroeder canned back-to-back triples to make it a 27-18 game late in the half.

A Davis put-back bucket ballooned the lead a bit more before North’s Na’Varion Adams and Walker scored on consecutive trips down the floor to get the Warriors within seven, 29-22, with 1:48 left in the half.

North got as close as five with a 6-0 run, but Orange, thanks to to a driving lay-in by Davis in the final seconds, led 31-25 at the break.

The Warriors battled back with a few solid second-half runs, but the Pioneers had an answer every time. North’s Nolan Fedak scored inside off a nice feed from Perkins, pulling his team within one, 41-40 with 2:22 left in the third, but Orange’s Ellis Appiah went to the line on two straight possessions, making three of the four free throws to bump the lead back to 44-40.

Dylan Joy hit a corner three to balloon the Pioneers’ edge to 53-46 with about five minutes left, but the Warriors had one more run in them.

A pair of free throws from Perkins made it a one-possession game, 55-52 with 2:05 left, but Orange made more than enough free throws down the stretch to put the finishing touches on the win.

Next up, Orange returns home for a non-league showdown with Westerville Central Saturday in Lewis Center. Tip is set for 6 p.m.