St. Paul Highland Park boys basketball coach John DePerry had four choice words for his players before they played host to Columbia Heights on Friday: Hold down Zach Lofton.

And if the Scots had known they would limit the guard — who averaged 35.7 points in his first three games — to just 23, they might have considered that successful. But that would be because they might have underestimated the talent around him.

Where Lofton dropped off, guard Keanu Glover (19 points) and center Andrew Hanson (18 points) picked up, and Columbia Heights powered through a slow start to win 81-74.

“This team right now is playing very, very well together,” Hylanders coach Willie Braziel said after the victory, when he looked much more relaxed than most of the first half, when the Scots were playing Columbia Heights (4-0) neck-in-neck.

Highland Park (3-2) came out strong, and kept the Hylanders in check, running a box-and-one defense that had Lofton somewhat off-balance.

“We hadn’t seen that before,” Braziel said. “But we need to deal with that. We can’t rely on one player to score 40 points every night.”

It seems his “other” players got the message.

Near the end of the first half, Columbia Heights adjusted and finished with a 10-0 run for a  38-28 lead. The Hylanders continued to push in the second half, creating some distance on a 22-9 run while the Scots got into foul trouble.

With a 20-point cushion, Columbia Heights appeared to take the reins off and let loose an athletic show. Lofton fed a beauty to Fay’Miss Freeman for an alley-oop, and Ben Glover was later fouled on a dunk attempt.

“He caught a nice one,” Lofton said, with a grin, of Freeman and the alley-oop.

Braziel just shook his head happily. “This team is so athletic,” he said.

DePerry sullenly agreed. “Before the game, we said, 'Make the other players beat us. Make them step up,’” he said.

“Well they did.”