Overland Park ? Players on Lawrence High’s boys basketball team must have felt like they were participating in a rigged carnival game Friday night, trying to earn a free prize at a basketball-toss stand where nobody had won all day. Because there certainly seemed to be an invisible cover on the rims inside Shawnee Mission West’s gym.

Whatever the case, the Lions jacked up a season-high 37 three-pointers against the Vikings, only to find most of them slide off the iron in a 65-52 loss.

The number of treys attempted was staggering even to the players.

“Wow,” Lions guard Bobby Davis said when informed of the final tally. “Wow. This week, we actually put a little more emphasis on shooting. Today we got in here, and the lid wouldn’t come off the basket.”

Granted, many of the threes came when LHS was in desperation mode in the fourth quarter, but that didn’t make the ball any more susceptible to falling through the hoop. For the game, Lawrence shot 8-of-37 from beyond the arc.

Yet for all the shooting woes, LHS actually began the game fairly well. Lance Kilburn hit two threes, and Preston Scheibler added one as the Lions held a 16-13 lead after the first quarter. Layups by Chebon Dawes and John Schneider extended the lead to 20-13 at the 5:44 mark of the second quarter.

But SM West adjusted in its zone defense. Despite starting nobody taller than 6-foot-3, the Vikings did a good job of sagging in the post on the 6-7 Schneider and he never was able to get going.

“I thought I was about to have a hey day in there,” Schneider said of first seeing SM West’s starting lineup. “But it didn’t work out like that.”

Instead, the Vikings dared the Lions to shoot from distance, and LHS obliged.

“We should have used John every play,” Davis said. “We didn’t, and it shows in the score.”

SM West took the lead, 24-22, on Kyle Anderson’s layup with 37 seconds left in the half. Then, Todd Eils delivered a severe blow to the Lions as the second-quarter buzzer sounded, burying a running three-pointer from the top of the key to push the margin to five.

Lawrence (6-10, 1-6) hardly made much noise while being forced to play catch-up in the second half. The Vikings spread the floor and patiently padded their lead until it reached double digits.

Lions coach Chris Davis said the game began just as he had hoped, but he was left trying to pinpoint exactly what went wrong.

“I think things went so easy for us early, we kind of let our guard down just a little bit, and that was too much,” Chris Davis said. “We’re not good enough to let our guard down against anybody.”

Schneider and point guard Dorian Green, who both struggled for much of the night, led LHS with 11 points each. Every starter for SM West scored in double figures, led by Eils’ 15 points.

The Lions play their fourth of four straight road games Tuesday night at Olathe North. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.