Facing the top-ranked team in Class 5A, Lawrence High’s girls basketball team expected nothing to come easily Tuesday night against Leavenworth.

They had no idea.

The Pioneers held the Lions scoreless in the first quarter, Lawrence didn’t make a field goal until the third quarter, and the Lions finished with more turnovers (22) than shot attempts (20) or points in a 53-20 home loss.

“I was disappointed,” coach Jeff Dickson said, “because I felt like we came out a little more tentative than I expected.”

After finding just three shot attempts and giving the ball away eight times on the way to a 14-0 hole in the first eight minutes, Lawrence (1-5) at least scored seven points by halftime via the charity stripe, as E’lease Stafford, Devon Spoonhunter, Skylar Drum, Marissa Pope and Gracie Reinsch all chipped in.

Still, the Lions missed five more field goals in the second quarter. They had opened the game 0-for-10 from the floor before their senior point guard, Pope, hit a three-pointer while drawing a foul on the right wing with 5:05 remaining in the third.

It took 18:55 of game clock, but Lawrence finally escaped from 0-for-the-night territory. Dickson could tell that the longer the drought went, and the more the Lions’ deficit grew, it began to weigh on them. But he felt pride in how they stayed positive through it all.

“You didn’t see kids griping at each other or complaining,” the first-year Lawrence coach said. “I thought we battled, I thought we tried.”

Kansas University commitment Tyler Johnson scored the first seven points of the game for unbeaten Leavenworth, and finished with a game-high 17. She and her teammates also had much to do with Lawrence’s offensive woes.

“They’re an extremely physical team, very well coached, very disciplined,” Dickson said. “At our stage of what we’re tying to do here, we’re not as physical as we need to be, we’re not as strong as we need to be. Defensively, they kept us from doing anything we want to do on offense.”

Freshman Stafford and senior Matia Finley hit shots for Lawrence in the final 3:50 to make sure Pope wasn’t the only Lion with a field goal.

Lawrence plays host to Olathe South Friday.

LEAVENWORTH (53)

Terrion Moore 1-3 0-0 2, Alicia Brown 3-6 3-3 9, Tashia Jones 2-3 0-1 4, Rachel Blackburn 1-2 0-0 2, Tyler Johnson 7-8 3-3 17, Zoie Hayward 2-4 1-2 5, Destinee Robinson 2-4 0-0 4, Naqari Harris 3-5 1-1 7, Shelby Ogden 1-3 0-0 3, Daysha Thomas 0-2 0-0 0, Aarrika Lister0-2 0-0 0, Jordan Counts 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-42 8-10 53.

LAWRENCE (20)

Skylar Drum 0-3 1-2 1, Madison McKinney 0-1 0-0 0, E’lease Stafford 1-3 2-2 4, Marissa Pope 1-5 1-4 4, Matia Finley 1-2 0-0 2, Devon Spoonhunter 0-0 5-8 5, Gracie Reinsch 0-1 1-4 1, Olivia Lemus 0-0 0-0 0, Alexis Boyd 0-3 1-6 1, Talima Harjo 0-2 1-1 1, Asia Goodwin 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 3-20 13-29 20.

Leavenworth 14 18 13 8 — 53

Lawrence 0 7 8 5 — 20

Three-point goals: Leav. 1-6 (Ogden); Lawr. 1-6 (Pope). Fouled out: None. Turnovers: Leav. 18, Lawr. 22.