HIGHLAND — Lone Peak High School spent most of the preseason ranked No. 1 nationally before falling in the final game of the City of Palms Classic in Fort Myers, Fla.
Now, the Knights are back on the top of the maxpreps.com national rankings after the former No. 1 Whitney Young High School lost to Jabari Parker's Simeon Prep Academy over the weekend, 44-41.
But don't remind Lone Peak head coach Quincy Lewis or his team of the ranking too much. He already knows. He said for him and his team, the next matchup is the only one that matters.
"Really, our focus is on what we have to do in our next game," Lewis said, "and to make sure we're prepared to have a chance to win a state championship.
"We're not unlike any other team in the state. You look at your team and you say, 'This is where we're at now, but there are plenty of things you can get better at.' From a defensive standpoint, I can certainly see that [with us]."
Lone Peak is coming off a very strong week in which it torched both Bingham High School and Lehi High school by a combined score of 167-106. The team’s most recent high-profile blowout was a 81-46 victory over Archbishop Mitty (Calif.) in Springfield, Mass., on Jan. 21. The win was Lone Peak's sixth out-of-state win against a nationally recognized program so far this year.
Lewis said he is pleased with how his team has played over the last two weeks.
"Overall, I was [pleased]," Lewis said. "I thought in one of our games we didn't bring as much energy on the defensive end as we needed to, but I thought we did a better job in the Lehi game of getting where we were supposed to be."
According to the Chicago Tribune, Simeon's Jaylon Tate and Kendrick Nunn were the difference in a game played at Chicago State University on Saturday night and televised nationally on ESPNU. Tate scored 12, including the final basket of the outing with 30 seconds left, and Nunn scored 10 points with six assists.
Jabari Parker scored seven points and snared six rebounds on the night.
Landon Hemsley is the sports content manager for DeseretNews.com. Email: lhemsley@deseretnews.com. Twitter: @EarlOfHemsley