On a whiteboard located in the corner of Newport’s gym, the Lady Knights outlined what to focus on during their game against the Islanders on Jan. 29: defense, playing two-on-two in the box and rebounding. When it came down to it, that is exactly what Newport did during its 52-40 win over the Islanders, to remain undefeated.

The Islanders (7-3) started off the night hitting their shots and staying tough on defense, ending the first quarter ahead, 13-10. Newport wasn’t able to get through the Islanders defense, staying scoreless until there were just over two minutes left in the first quarter. The Knights quickly made up for the deficit as if the ball were magnetically drawn to their hoop, while the Islanders found the opposite luck, fighting to get even a lay-up to stick. Within a minute of the second quarter, Newport had found the steam to overtake Mercer Island. The lead quickly built until the end of the half, which resulted with the Knights at 30-21.

“We started off great, 13-0, but we couldn’t maintain it,” said head coach Jamie Prescott, coaching her first game since the Islanders played Juanita on Dec. 11, after being on maternity leave. “We recognized opportunities, but didn’t follow through on them.”

After the half, when Prescott said the girls discussed defense and the uncharacteristic mistakes that the Islanders had made, the team lost more ground on the boards as Newport stayed 10 points ahead, ending the quarter 42-31 after Newport made a stunning three from almost mid-court as the buzzer sounded. The final quarter slowed for both sides, with Newport adding 10 points and Mercer Island putting up nine.

Scoring was spread across the board, as the Islanders had come to expect. Jae Shin had the team’s high for the night with 13 points, while Kate DaPron was second with 12 points for her team. Heidi Black earned five, Kris Brackman and Hailey Gullstad each put up four points, and Sarah Taylor added two. The team was without another big scorer, Hannah Lilly, which Prescott said seemed to throw the team off.

“It put them off balance and changed the routine,” said Prescott. Overall, she said, despite discussing covering Newport’s top scorer every year for the last four years, it was still an issue on Tuesday night. Prescott said that, for whatever reason, the Knights just knocked the team into a weird place, and that had a large effect on the outcome.

The team returned from its trip to Arizona and the Nike Tournament of Champions two weeks ago with a successful 3-1 record during the tournament. That record gave the Islanders ninth place at the prestigious tournament, ending with a 74-56 win over Hamilton of Arizona, which has won the tournament twice.

“They did awesome,” said Prescott, who did not attend the tournament with the team. “They played some great teams, and went against some very high caliber players.” Prescott said she has reviewed all the numbers and talked with the coaching staff, and in every game different players stepped up for the Islanders.

The tournament has featured 10 of the last 12 USA Today national champions and has showcased 84 state championship teams since 1997.

The Islanders started off the trip with a loss to Mountain View, a team from Mesa, Ariz. It might have been jet lag or just the warm temperatures, but Mountain View found an early lead of 44-30 after a high number of Mercer Island turnovers in the first half. In the third quarter of their first game, Black and Gullstad’s free throws — along with Balinbin’s rebounding — pushed the score closer together, but even with DaPron on the inside going for 11 points, it wasn’t enough to pull back in, and MI lost 68-51.

A day after the loss, the Islanders — rested and ready — took on Seton Catholic from Chandler, Ariz. The team bounced back from its disappointing first day for a 48-33 win overall. Lilly put up 20 points during the game and inside defense from Taylor and DaPron held back a strong offensive run from Seton.

Coming off the win, Mercer Island had a two-day break in play before dismantling Cherry Creek, a school from Denver, 64-51. The Islanders started the match off slow, behind by two points going into the second quarter, but a Shin, Lilly and Gullstad combination on the court gave the Islanders a 23-11 run to end the first half ahead.

In their last game of the tournament, battling for ninth place, the Mercer Island girls took on Hamilton, out of Arizona. The Islanders won 74-56, after big three-pointers from Shin on the outside.

According to Michael Taylor, a parent who traveled with the team to the tournament, the last game was what he called a ‘look’ at what the rest of the Islanders’ season could be like.

“Every player contributed, every player moved the ball on offense, and every player played intense, scrambling defense,” Taylor wrote in an e-mail.

The Islanders will face off against league rival Bellevue, Jan. 8, at 6:30 p.m. in the Mercer Island gym.