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Lone Peak junior Makeili Ika looks to pass the ball during the Region 4 game at Pleasant Grove on Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. (Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald)

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Pleasant Grove junior Chloe Rutter goes up for a shot during the Region 4 game against Lone Peak at Pleasant Grove on Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. (Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald)

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Lone Peak junior Kailey Woolston dribbles the basketball during the Region 4 game at Pleasant Grove on Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. (Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald)

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Lone Peak sophomore Shawnee Nordstrom shoots a 3-pointer during the Region 4 game at Pleasant Grove on Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. (Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald)

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Pleasant Grove junior Brooklyn Fely shoots a shot during the Region 4 game against Lone Peak at Pleasant Grove on Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. (Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald)

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Lone Peak junior Kailey Woolston drives to the basket during the Region 4 game at Pleasant Grove on Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. (Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald)

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Pleasant Grove senior Brooklyn Fely drives to the basket during the Region 4 game against Lone Peak at Pleasant Grove on Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. (Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald)

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Pleasant Grove junior Mia Reeves drives to the basket during the Region 4 game against Lone Peak at Pleasant Grove on Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. (Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald)

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Lone Peak head coach Nancy Warner calls a timeout during the Region 4 game at Pleasant Grove on Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. (Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald)

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Pleasant Grove head coach Janine Reeves directs her team during the Region 4 game against Lone Peak at Pleasant Grove on Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. (Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald)

❮ ❯

If only 2-pointers and free throws counted in Friday night’s Region 4 girls basketball showdown at Pleasant Grove between the Vikings and Lone Peak, the final score would’ve been fairly close: 46-38 in favor of the Knights.

But 3-pointers count … and that was where Lone Peak really set itself apart.

The Knights drained 11 3-pointers compared to just one trey for the Vikings as rolled to the 79-41 victory.

“I was super-proud of how we played,” Lone Peak head coach Nancy Warner said. “We are very capable of shooting the ball. You hope you aren’t all off on the same night but when we get our feet set and find our rhythm, we are hard to stop. It was great to see them all hitting.”

Leading the way, as she has all year, was junior guard Kailey Woolston. She drained six bombs from beyond the arc on her way to a game-high 28 points.

“We pushed the ball, played as a team and shared the ball,” Woolston said.

She said having so many talented shooters makes it easy to be confident when playing inside-out.

“It makes our drive-and-kick game so much better,” Woolston said. “If we get in there and pass it out, we know we have a lot of players who can knock it down.”

Two other keys for the big win for the Knights were playing good defense and getting out in transition.

“We pride ourselves on our defense,” Warner said. “They have a great team with two bigs who can really dominate, but we were able to execute and keep them off the offensive glass for the most part. We also got out in transition and found each other really well. We then continued to do that throughout the game.”

Pleasant Grove head coach Janine Reeves said she felt like her team never found its rhythm defensively and that made things tough.

“We need to have all five players on the same page,” Reeves said. “We tried some different things defensively and we need to work on those. This team is more offensive-minded and we are undersized at all positions. We need to play as a team. Some days we do this well and some days we don’t.”

Lone Peak put the pressure on early, scoring the first eight points of the game. Although Pleasant Grove tallied six of the next eight to get within four, the Vikings were never able to erase the early deficit and ended up falling further and further behind.

“We finally settled down a little bit in the second half,” Reeves said. “Lone Peak did a great job of speeding us up and getting us out of our game plan.”

The Knights got 13 points apiece from senior guard Teuila Nawahine (three 3-pointers) and junior guard Makeili Ika (two 3-pointers).

Pleasant Grove was paced by 14 points from junior forward Chloe Rutter and 12 from senior Brooklyn Fely.

Both teams know there is a lot of basketball left and want to continue to build from both victory and defeat.

“We’re doing well and starting to come together,” Woolston said. “But we have a long ways to go. We need to come to practice tomorrow ready to work.”

Warner said she sees her Knights continuing to improve, even though they are undefeated.

“We are starting to figure out what we are capable of as a team,” Warner said. “I don’t think we are close to hitting our potential yet. It’s exciting to see it develop.”

Lone Peak (10-0, 1-0) next hosts Skyridge on Tuesday, Jan. 18, while Pleasant Grove (10-4, 0-1) plays at American Fork on the same day.

Both games are scheduled to begin at 5:15 p.m.