STILWELL ? In a way, Lawrence High junior guard Tyler Knight said he and his teammates were blind coming into Thursday’s boys basketball game against Ralston (Neb.) High in the opening round of the Blue Valley Shootout.

The Lions only had seen a couple of scouting reports and weren’t sure what to expect, but it didn’t matter in the end. The Lions shot 57 percent from the field and played stifling defense, drubbing the Rams, 71-47, to improve to 2-0.

“We weren’t coming in expecting to win by this much, but we were pretty confident after our first game,” Knight said. “We’re pumped. We’ve got a lot of momentum right now, and we plan on winning this tournament.”

Lawrence got separation early when Knight hit back-to-back three-pointers to take a 10-5 lead, and the Lions wouldn’t trail again.

The Lions fed the ball inside repeatedly to 6-foot-7 senior Tony Anderson, who scored 11 of his game-high 23 points in the second frame, and Lawrence opened a 40-24 halftime lead.

Besides scoring more than half of his team’s 20 points in the quarter, Anderson looked good doing it. He put back missed shots in flight and even executed a sweet curl move between two defenders on the baseline for another bucket.

After Anderson owned the boards and Ralston’s undersized front line in the first half, the Rams adjusted defensively, collapsing two or three defenders on him on each possession.

It was then that the Lions put the game out of reach with their outside touch. Knight was Lawrence’s most dangerous threat on the perimeter, netting 18 points and complementing Anderson inside.

“It’s a thing we’re trying to get done this season, where if we can establish Tony early, then all of a sudden guys on the outside have open shots,” Lawrence coach Chris Davis said. “It was Tyler tonight, but really any of the guards we have, I’m very comfortable with them shooting.’

The performance that will not show up in any box score but may have been most vital to Lawrence’s success was the defensive presence of senior guard David Freeman.

Freeman was matched up on Ralston’s big gun, junior guard Grady Hastings, and forced Hastings into bad shots all night. Hastings scored just 11 points on 5-of-13 shooting.

The Lions committed only nine team fouls the entire game.

“We wanted to force them into extra passes, and that’s what we did,” Davis said. “We had a game plan in place, and the guys came out and executed it.”

Lawrence once again will have a slight size advantage tonight in its semifinal showdown with the host Blue Valley Tigers. Blue Valley also won comfortably, defeating Kansas City (Mo.) Pembroke Hill, 63-39.

“We watched their game, and they’re going to be an aggressive team,” Davis said. “We’ll be looking to get the ball inside to Tony, and execute almost the same game plan.”