Shawnee Mission West senior Erin Copeland (34) reachES for the ball as Lawrence High sophomore Krista Costa, right, attempts to dribble away. The Vikings defeated the Lions, 64-34, on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2011 at LHS.

The Lawrence High girls basketball team’s gameplan on Thursday was simple: make Shawnee Mission West hit the outside shot to win.

The Vikings certainly did it, hitting 62.5 percent of their field goals and 5-of-7 three-pointers to cruise to a 64-34 victory at LHS.

Coming out in a packed-in 1-3-1 zone, the Lions wanted to try to eliminate the Vikings’ vaunted inside attack.

But the Vikings (12-1) hit their outside shots early, forcing the Lions (4-9) to come out of the zone. By then, the deficit was just too great for the Lions to overcome.

Coach Nick Wood knew the Vikings were a very capable team, but he wasn’t completely satisfied with his team’s effort.

“We didn’t make it as hard for them as we needed to,” Wood said.

The Vikings opened the game on a 9-2 run behind seven points from senior Kaitlin Beeman. West took a 14-4 lead before Wood switched his team into a man-to-man defense.

He pointed to a couple defensive issues — namely not getting back in transition or playing solid help-side defense.

“Those aren’t things we preach,” Wood said. “We just made it way too easy, and against a really good team like that, you can’t make life easy for them or they’ll really hurt you.”

The Vikings took a 31-8 lead into halftime on 12-of-20 shooting. The Lions managed just two field goals in the half, both by senior Tamiya Green.

In the second half, the Lions were able to score the basketball better but never pulled within 25 points.

Green led the way yet again for the Lions, scoring 15 points on 7-of-13 shooting and pulling down eight rebounds. Senior Emily Peterson added 11.

In the locker room after the game, Wood urged his team to remain patient on offense.

“I don’t care if we’re running through offense four or five times,” Wood said. “We wanted to make sure we got a really good look. I think we kind of got away from that, and that’s when we kind of let things get out of control.”

Next up for the Lions is a roadtrip to Shawnee Mission East on Monday for a 7 p.m. tipoff. Seniors Rachel Kelly and Sami Johnson are both cleared to play after sitting out of Thursday’s game.