Something was wrong. Surely what I saw in front of me couldn’t have been true.

A couple of months ago, I was reading an e-mail that contained Sunflower League girls basketball statistics, and not a single Lawrence High player was listed among the league’s top scorers.

Moreover, the lowest scorer was averaging 10.0 points a game. How could the Lions, who were unbeaten, or close to it at that stage, not have a single player averaging in double-figure scoring?

So I called Kristin Mallory, the Lions’ coach, and asked her if she had failed to submit her statistics that week. Mallory said she had indeed sent them in and that the scoring list was correct.

“I don’t have anybody averaging in double figures,” Mallory told me. “I have two or three averaging about nine points a game.”

I have to admit I’ve heard coaches and players talk about a “team effort” so often I’m pretty jaded. My ears have a tendency to close when I hear those two words.

And yet, in reflecting on the Lions’ surprising run from the No. 7 seed in the Class 6A state tournament to the championship, I’m ready to concede this was one team that in the truest sense proved that the whole is indeed equal to the sum of its parts.

Usually a quality high school team has one or two standouts, one or two solid players and several role players. This Lawrence High edition, however, had no stars and few role players. Mallory could go seven or eight players deep, with all of them offering something tangible to the mix.

For example, in Saturday’s thrilling 54-52 victory over Goddard in the finale, senior Danielle Bird was struggling with her shot and with foul trouble. Yet sophomore Jasmyn Turner, the No. 8 player in the rotation, came off the bench to post career highs in points (15) and rebounds (7).

Despite her Saturday woes, Bird wound up as the Lions’ leading scorer in the tourney’s three games with a 13.7 average. The other four starters were fairly well bunched – Haley Parker 10.7, Tania Jackson 10.0, Taylor Bird 8.6 and Cassie Potter 7.7.

On paper, the 2007-08 Lions are the third best of the three Lawrence High girls basketball teams to earn a state title. Their 21-4 final record is close to the Lions’ 1992 6A state titlists who wound up 22-3 under coach Gary Hammer and boasted the likes of Jennifer Trapp, Megan Kampschroeder and Jill Oelschlager.

Nevertheless, the Lions’ first state championship team was clearly the best. Coach Larry Zientara’s 1984 champs went unbeaten in 24 games, one of only four 6A teams in state history to complete a season without a defeat.

In retrospect, that ’84 team was probably the most talented in school history. It featured a post player who could score in Amy Lienhard and one who could rebound in Dorinda Kearns. It had a wing who could score in Claire Masinton and another who could defend in Sonya Coleman. Finally, Nikki Wright gave the ’84 club a quintessential post guard.

Still, this year’s Lawrence High group has a chance to do something the ’84 and ’92 teams couldn’t do – win back-to-back state titles. Mallory loses only two seniors – Danielle Bird and reserve Lindsey Murray – so expectations will be high next winter.