NEW MARKET — A quick start led the Lebanon girls basketball team to a victory over Southmont on Friday night.
The Tigers held the Mounties without a field goal for the first 8:26 of the game, and cruised to a 63-36 win.
“I was proud of our girls for our defensive effort,” Lebanon head coach Candice Huckstep said. “In conference games we have been holding teams under 40 points a game, so that was our goal going into it. I would like us to sit down a little bit more and stop reaching, because we picked up some silly fouls, but overall, we played well.”
The Tigers took control of the game in the opening minutes.
Lebanon scored the game’s first nine points of the game and held Southmont without a point until Isabelle Miller hit a free throw with 2:42 left in the quarter.
The Mounties missed their first five shots from the field and turned it over 11 times in the opening quarter.
“It was just sloppy basketball, a lot of empty possessions,” Southmont head coach Dustin Oakley said. “I was frustrated with that, but their offensive rebounding just killed us. Our overall physical toughness tonight, we just didn’t bring it tonight and we fell behind too much.”
Lebanon grabbed 17 offensive rebounds on 36 missed shots.
Lyla Barr had six herself, with Ashlyn Terrill grabbing five.
“They are very long and athletic,” Oakley said. “They just get after you too. I thought we would struggle a little bit with their pressure, and it bothered us a little bit. We hadn’t seen that kind of pressure in a couple of weeks.”
Lebanon led 15-3 at the end of the quarter.
Southmont got as close as 10 on two occasions in the second quarter, the last time with 2:30 left in the half, but the Tigers scored the last five points of the half – including a last-second three-point play by Christina Lamb – and scored the first seven points of the second half to go up 22.
Southmont got no closer than 20 after that.
“That last putback and foul just killed us,” Oakley said. “It just felt like once we got a couple of buckets, they get out in transition really well. It was just kind of a mix of everything. We didn’t play a complete game at all, and it just got away from us.”
Gabby Brewer led the Tigers with 15 points.
Christina Lamb had 11, Lyla Barr had 10, Alexis Wines and Ashlyn Terrill both had nine and Kierston Smith added 10 for the Tigers, who finished the regular season 14-8.
“I am really proud of our girls,” Huckstep said. “Last year they won 13 games and our goal was to win this game so we finished with more wins. This got us third-place in conference too. I know it was their senior night, but it was a big game for us too.”
The Tigers now enter post-season play on Tuesday.
Lebanon will face Brebeuf Jesuit on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Bishop Chatard.
“We just have to make starter decisions with the ball,” Huckstep said. “We want to be cleaner and crisper both defensively and offensively with our basketball IQ. We know if we want to do well in the tournament, we have to clean up some things.”
Isabelle Miller and Natalie Manion led the Mounties with nine points each, while Addison Charles chipped in eight.
Southmont finished the regular season 13-9 and are off until Friday when they play the winner of Riverton Parke and Parke Heritage at Cloverdale.
“We are in a good spot,” Oakley said. “We probably had our two toughest opponents in a while back-to-back, and before that we won seven in a row. We are very confident, it was just a tough week with three games and very little practice time. We are looking forward to next week.”
Southmont's finished the JV regular season with a 17-2 record after a 41-37 win on Friday over Lebanon to claim the Sagamore Conference championship.
