Maybe the Washington Warriors should have cleared the gym Friday night and played a pickup game of 2-on-2 basketball, with Wes Washpun and Josh Oglesby facing Marcus Paige and Matt Bohannon.

That might have been a fair fight. Reality was not.

The top-ranked Linn-Mar Lions proved they were too deep, too talented and too good for the Warriors and smashed them, 80-55, in a Mississippi Valley Conference mismatch.

Paige and Bohannon scored in double figures for Linn-Mar, but so did all its other starters as Josh Montague, Ian McBrayer and Shane Benton joined the fun.

"That's why I think it's tough for teams to handle us at times," Paige said, "because you really can't focus on anyone in particular."

North Carolina Coach Roy Williams sat in a corner of the gym and saw Paige, his future Tar Heel, pop in four 3-pointers, score 19 points and run the show. Williams and the near-capacity crowd got to see a lot more than that, however.

Bohannon also nailed four 3-pointers and poured in 16 points, making his future University of Northern Iowa assistant coaches happy. Montague scored 13 points, McBrayer scored 12 and Benton also netted 12 for the Lions (11-0, 7-0).

"They're really good. They're solid," said Oglesby, who scored 20 points for the Warriors but struggled to do it.

"You couldn't ask for a better point guard than Marcus distributing the ball, Matt shooting the 3, and their two bigs down low (Montague and McBrayer) battling and getting rebounds. I mean, it's hard to beat them."

It may be impossible.

"That's the challenge right now for the rest of the state, is to find a way to battle with them on both ends of the court," Washington Coach Brad Metzger remarked.

Linn-Mar raced to a 20-10 lead after the first quarter and enjoyed a 35-22 bulge at halftime. The Lions doubled the count, 56-28, in the third quarter and cruised.

"We know we have a lot of pieces and a lot of kids that work hard at it," Bohannon said. "Tonight we had a lot of things working well."

The Lions did everything well. They shot 10-for-19 on 3-pointers, hit 52.9 percent of their shots overall and played stellar defense. Oglesby got his 20 points, but was 1-for-9 on 3-pointers.

"I thought we made Josh work, and that was our goal," Linn-Mar Coach Chris Robertson said. "Make him run, make him work.

"I thought Shane (Benton) did a great job of chasing him. When he did catch it, we were right there and just tried to disrupt his rhythm as best we can."

Washpun scored 14 points for the Warriors, but was only 2-for-8 from the field and committed seven turnovers.

Washpun and Oglesby combined to score 34 points for Washington, compared with 35 for Paige and Bohannon. But the two Warriors were 8-for-26 from the field while the two Lions were 12-for-23. Meanwhile, the rest of the Lions roared as well.

"Everybody can put up points, everybody defends," Montague said. "That's what we're all about."

"Tonight was a good one," Bohannon said.

Washington dipped to 7-4 overall and 5-2 in the Valley.

LINN-MAR (80): Benton 3 6-7 12, Paige 6 3-4 19, Bohannon 6 0-2 16, McBrayer 5 2-2 12, Montague 5 1-2 13, Gogg 0 0-0 0, Thul 1 0-0 2, Krusie 1 1-3 3, Soyer 0 0-0 0, Lassen 1 0-0 2, Gentzler 0 1-2 1, Lancial 0 0-0 0. Totals 28 14-22 80.

WASHINGTON (55): Carr 2 0-0 5, Washpun 2 10-14 14, Moa 2 1-2 6, Oglesby 6 7-7 20, Bredl 2 3-6 7, Tann 0 0-0 0, Todd 0 1-2 1, Hoekstra 0 0-0 0, Nash 1 0-0 2, Butterfield 0 0-0 0, Oney 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 22-31 55.

Halftime -- Linn-Mar 35, Washington 22. 3-point goals -- Linn-Mar 10 (Paige 4, Bohannon 4, Montague 2), Washington 3 (Carr 1, Moa 1, Oglesby 1). Fouled out -- Bredl.