Overland Park ? Life might not get any tougher for Lawrence High’s girls basketball players. The Lions opened against traditional power Overland Park Aquinas, and fell, 54-40, Thursday night.

“Their record speaks for itself,” LHS coach Kristin Mallory said of Aquinas. “They were 26-1 last year, have 10 straight years in the state tournament. They’re a great team.”

The Lions couldn’t recover after falling behind 11-0.

“You just can’t let a team like that get out to an early lead,” Mallory said. “They came out and pressured us. We knew they were going to.”

Megan Klinger led the Lions with 18 points and six rebounds. Kayla Nolte added eight points and four rebounds, Sydney Wilson had eight points, Lacey Elmore scored eight points and Drew Huff made three steals. Klingler connected on eight of 10 free-throw attempts.

“It’s a tough way to open,” Mallory said. “We did a pretty good job except for four or five minutes of the game. I thought our halfcourt defense was excellent. We held a very good team to 54 points.”

The Lions will play Monday at Kansas City Washington. They won’t play at home until Dec. 17 against Free State.

Notes

Lawrence High: Kayla Nolte 8, Sydney Wilson 8, Lacey Elmore 6, Megan Klingler 18.

Aquinas: Shain 2, O’Malley 7, Sweeney 14, Ballwig 24, Willis 4, Rogers 2, Koster 1.