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So much for a battle of nationally ranked foes.

Lone Peak made it look more like a mugging in their visit to Chicago, taking down No. 13 Proviso East (Il.) 84-46. Regrettably, the Pirates were playing without top prospect Sterling Brown, but that hardly explains the wide gap between the two by the finish.

Proviso East attacked the No. 6 Knights with the full-court press, but by the second half, it wasn't all that effective.

"They just kept pressing us, and we were breaking it and our guys wound up taking open shots on the other end," coach Quincy Lewis said. "There was so much pressing and trapping, there's no place to run. You're just constantly breaking traps to move the ball, which was good for our kids to see something different."

The hyped match-up turned out to be elementary for the Knights, as the team's three BYU-bound stars led the way. Junior T.J. Haws led with 24 points and senior Nick Emery added 19. Senior center Eric Mika had a great out-of-state debut, pouring in 18 points and 15 rebounds, with a few dunks for good measure.

The lopsided contest drew some admiration from Chicago-area media and fans. NBA great Isiah Thomas even tweeted about the game: "lone peak high school West highland Utah Great display of basketball today !"

Lewis said the early season cohesion is very much a result of Lone Peak's core group playing together for years, even travelling as a club team to gain more experience.

Lone Peak was visiting Chicago on its first of four trips out of state. The Knights are planning to go to Florida, Wisconsin and Massachusetts before the season is over. They'll also be playing out-of-state teams next week at the Great Western Shootout before culminating in a Saturday contest with local foe Orem.

Topping the 80-point mark in each of their two games so far, Lone Peak looks ready for big-time success this year. But that doesn't mean Lewis hasn't found a few things to pick at.

"We're not in good enough physical condition," he said. "We made some real mistakes against Brighton in the third quarter. We've got a lot to work on, but we do have an experienced team, so we're doing a little better than some other teams this early in the season."

— Kyle Goon

kgoon@sltrib.comTwitter: @kylegoon