third place with 38-30 win

By STEVEN G. WATSON

Sports Writer

While the Pike Liberal Arts girls’ varsity might not have had their best scoring night on record, their defensive effort ranked right up there.

Using their height advantage down low and some tight looks on defense, the Lady Patriots cruised to a 38-30 win over the Dixie Lady Rebels in the consolation match of the Holiday Tournament.

After their loss to Crenshaw in the first round of the tournament, PLAS head coach Jim Ryan expressed his concern with the team’s intensity, something he saw plenty of on Tuesday.

"I thought our intensity was much better today," Ryan said. "Our height was key, they couldn’t handle us inside. We did a great job defensively on their two best players and that seemed to be the key, our defense was intense. I thought we had great effort by the entire team."

With both teams struggling from the field in the first quarter, the Lady Patriots broke out in the second 10-1 run to start and ended the half up 21-14.

Pike Liberals’ Katie Sanders, Sabrina Swindle and Shaunna Wheeler grabbed rebound after rebound down low for the Lady Patriots leading to easy putbacks off the offensive glass.

PLAS extended their lead out to 11 points at the end of three and was up by as much as 14 early in the fourth before sending in the reserves to mop up the rest of the Rebels left on the court.

Dixie was only able to notch one point in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter before hitting a number of shots late to draw the closing score to only an eight point deficit.

Swindle finished with a game-high 14 points for the Lady Patriots while Sanders and Wheeler notched 10 and eight respectively.

Both PLAS teams play Monday at Hooper.