Head boys basketball coach Bob Rodgers said he felt his team turned the corner on their season after a 58-51 loss to the Scituate Sailors on Jan. 20, and his team is backing up his every word.

The Panthers got points from 11 different players on Tuesday to beat the Duxbury Dragons 68-48 for their third straight win, vault into second place in the Keenan Division and climb over .500 for the first time since Dec. 23.

“The kids are bringing energy and that’s the biggest difference,” Rodgers said. “We’re playing with a much different intensity level than we did earlier. Sometimes that becomes cliché, but that’s the reality. We’re running the floor hard on both ends, the rebounding is better, and it all just falls together when that happens.”

Dondre James led the Panthers with 13 points while sophomore Brian Feeney chipped in with 10 in the win over the Dragons four days after James netted 20 while grabbing 13 rebounds to lead Whitman-Hanson to a 65-49 win over the Pembroke Titans at the high school.

James scored 14 of his 20 points in the second half, including a dagger 3-pointer in the final three minutes after Pembroke had cut a 14-point Panther lead in half.

The Panthers then got six big points from center Blake Hickey, who finished the game with a double-double of his own with 11 points and 14 boards.

“The three that Dondre hit was the nail in the coffin,” Rodgers said. “When we had that bucket, I felt pretty good and we pounded it into Blake three times in a row and that was key.”

The Panthers came out of the gates clicking on both ends of the floor, jumping out to an 8-0 lead after forcing turnovers on Pembroke’s first five possessions. Pembroke closed the gap to four, 20-16, by the end of the first quarter, but the Panthers pulled away in the second quarter behind captain Alex Nuby. Nuby scored nine in the frame and 17 in the first half to stake the Panthers to a 38-24 halftime lead.

The Titans held Nuby to just a field goal in the second half, but James caught fire in the third quarter to keep the Panthers in front by 14, 51-37, heading into the fourth. Pembroke cut the lead to seven behind two 3-pointers by Justin Ryan, but James’ three and Hickey’s three baskets sealed the win for the Panthers.

Ryan finished with 13 for Pembroke while Titan center Billy Quigg finished three blocks shy of a triple-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds to go with seven rejections.

“He’s a good player,” “I’ve watched him develop over the years, and he should be proud of himself. He just plays so hard. Pembroke has a nice team, [head coach Will Seward] has done a really nice job with them.”

The Panthers will try to stretch their winning streak to four at the high school on Friday when they host the Bridgewater-Raynham Trojans as part of a varsity double-header with the girls basketball team at the high school.