“There is no way to simulate Lincoln High’s basketball team in practice,” said La Jolla High boys basketball coach Kamal Assaf. “I’d have to call the San Diego State Aztecs and say 'come on down and give us a look.'

“This is the best team in the county, maybe the best team in the state and one of the better teams in the nation,” said Assaf of the Lincoln Hornets, who came to town Tuesday for a Western League battle with the host Vikings. “They probably have four Division I players on the team.”

Lincoln, the defending Division II state champions who entered the  game with a 14-1 record, ranked first in the section, third in the state and 15^th in the nation, showed its wares, posting a 61-42 victory over La Jolla High.

Senior co-captain Norman Powell scored 20 points, while sophomore guard Javonte Byrd added 16 and sophomore co-caption Tyree Robinson 14 to lead Lincoln, which won its fifth straight and improved to 3-0 in the league.

La Jolla (10-7, 1-2) got  20 points from Jacob Baranowski , 11 from Nick Reynolds and seven from Nick Sebold.

“We thought there were many examples of a triumph out there for us,” said Assaf. “Because they (Lincoln) are so gifted, there’s no way for me to simulate it. All we can do is work on habits and that’s what we did today. We want to continue to develop good habits and continue to persevere.

“A game like this allows us to see the same things from other opponents in our division, but at a much higher clip,” said Assaf. “The margin for error is less. So what we tried to do in practice was to work our press break yesterday (Monday), we tried to work on using our spacing and ball movement to get great shots. They make you hurry up and they make you play. It was a teaching game.”

The La Jolla players, who played hard throughout, had similar views.

“There is no team that is going to come close to this team (Lincoln) with athleticism, skill or anything,” said senior Mike Peterson. “So to play this well against this team really gives us confidence. You never like to lose, but we’re going into the next game real confident.

“If we play this way against any other team in the league we’re going to win nine times out of 10,” added Peterson. “So I’m very excited to get back into the gym tomorrow, get a good practice, and then coming in Friday with a big home game (against  Cathedral Catholic at 7:30) with a lot of fans. We should be ready.”

“La Jolla played hard and it was a real competitive game,” offered Lincoln coach Jason Bryant.  “The refs let us play a little bit so it was good. The league is always fun.”

Lincoln, which led, 26-15 at the half, built up a 25-point lead, 54-29, lead early in the fourth quarter before Baranowski drained three straight treys as the Vikings went on an 11-2 run.

“Jacob is a coach’s son and has real good basketball IQ,” said Assaf. “We like him because he has an inside game and an outside game and he can pass. He is one of those multi-dimensional kids. He’s a poised kid and the game doesn’t happen too fast for him. We depend on him to make great decisions.

“At the end of the day you are trying to build mental toughness and a game like this forces us to be mentally tough,” said Assaf. “This is a long season and we want to play our best basketball in the playoffs, so we’re building. So we don’t look at this game as anything other than an opportunity and challenge to get better.”