"Chester's
61-game 3-year winning-streak comes to an end against Utah power Lone Peak.
They will meet again in January out in Milwaukee."
"For
Jefferson, it was his first loss since his sophomore year at Chester — since
Dec. 30, 2010, to be exact. 'It hurts — it hurts a lot, man,'
Jefferson said. 'We aren’t used to losing, so I can’t really explain
it'."
Summary
No. 1 Lone
Peak took care of business in Florida on Thursday, ending No. 3 Chester's
61-game winning streak in relative easy fashion.
Many high
school basketball fans wondered about the legitimacy of Lone Peak’s No. 1
national ranking according to MaxPreps earlier this week. It’s hard to imagine
any doubters remain after the clinic the Knights put on Thursday.
Top-ranked
Lone Peak absolutely destroyed No. 3 Chester 73-50 in the quarterfinals of the
City of Palms Classic in Ft. Myers, Fla. to improve to 9-0 this preseason.
Nick Emery
and T.J. Haws scored 23 each to lead all scorers as the defending 5A state
champs outscored Chester in each of the first three quarters to end the
Clippers’ 61-game winning streak.
“I think we
surprised them, and by the time they figured out they had a game we were up 12,
14 points,” said Lone Peak coach Quincy Lewis.
Lone Peak
was the more disciplined team throughout the evening to advance to the City of
Palms Classic semifinals. It will face the winner of the Lake Wales,
Fla./Southwind (Memphis, Tenn.) on Friday at 5 p.m. Lake Wells and Southwind
tip off tonight at 7:15 p.m. Southwind is ranked No. 5 by MaxPreps.
“I think it
shows that Utah really plays good basketball, we really do. Year after year our
best teams are undervalued on a national scope,” said Lewis.
Haws got
Lone Peak going in the first quarter, knocking down three 3-pointers to pace
his team to a 17-8 lead.
“We came out
and shot well from the start, and we didn’t do that the other night against the
Mississippi team,” said Lewis, in reference to Wednesday’s 60-42 win over
Callaway, Miss. “We shot well right out of the gates and jumped on them.”
The third
quarter is when the Knights really began to pull away outscoring the Clippers
26-14 to build a 59-36 lead. It’s no surprise that Emery was the catalyst to
the run.
“Nick was
the heart of the Knights in the third quarter. He stuck a couple of tough 3s
and got to the basket a few times and it was 20-plus a couple minutes into the
third,” said Lewis.
Lone Peak
shot 46 percent from the field and knocked down 8 of 24 3-pointers.
The Knights’
defense was outstanding again holding Chester to just 35 percent shooting and
forcing it into 20 turnovers. Lone Peak, meanwhile, only turned it over 10
times which was huge according to Lewis.
“It’s not
something you would think going into a game like this where we’re going to get
pressured,” said Lewis. “We play inside out defense and make them shoot tough
jump shots, and we just kind of said we’re not going to give them easy baskets
in transition cause we turn it over, they’re going to have to earn it.”
Along with
Emery and Haws dominated game, Eric Mika chipped in with 13 points and nine
rebounds while Connor Toolsen added 10 points
Even though
MaxPreps had Lone Peak ranked No. 1, the two other publications that publish
national high school basketball rankings both had Chester ranked higher. ESPN
had Chester at No. 5 and Lone Peak at No. 6, while USA Today had Chester at No.
4 and Lone Peak No. 7.
Ironically
enough, Lone Peak and Chester are scheduled to meet again in Milwaukee at the
Brandon Jennings Invitational on Jan. 12. Lewis said the tournament organizer
reserves the right to change the match-ups, and may end up doing so.
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