It started early and it came often for the Crenshaw Christian Academy Lady Cougars Monday evening.

The Lady Cougars suffered from a case of dealing with the aggressive press defense run by the No. 6 Pike Liberal Arts School Lady Patriots. The Lady Patriots (4-0) did not allow Crenshaw up for air and did not allow a field goal until the Lady Cougars’ Candice Dunn scored a basket with 20.3 seconds to go in the first half.

“Offensively I thought Anna Saunders had a great game,” PLAS head coach Steven Kilcrease said. “We had several others, but she had a really good game and Rebecca (Farrar) shot the ball well. And we will have to have that in the next couple games. We will need our guards to score to open it up inside.”

Saunders and Farrar led the team with 11 points apiece and Saunders added four rebounds and eight steals. Farrar had three steals and two rebounds.

The Lady Patriots jumped out to a 19-2 lead by the end of the first quarter and Kilcrease stopped the full court press in the second quarter and went to a half court press and eventually a half court zone defense.

“We just have to keep playing and play hard and they did that tonight,” Kilcrease said.

He was able to get every player some playing time in the game.

“All of them got to play and every one of them played hard,” he said. “Every one of them got in there and that is very hard with 17, but we got it done. And we are proud we did that. And that can only help us down the road because it helps us build depth.”

He also had some time to work on some things he thought the team needed to work on.

“I was pleased with our half-court defense and that is what we are looking at, getting better every night,” Kilcrease said. “We haven’t even gone over a zone defense and they got out there and played it well.”

The Lady Patriots held a 31-9 halftime lead and the starters were sitting most of the second half. The second half was a little more equal, at 18-17 in favor of the Lady Patriots.

Eady Pinckard had eight points, six rebounds and one steal. Katie Wiggins added five points and four rebounds.

Pike Lib travels to Greenville for a matchup with region rival Fort Dale today and hosts No. 1 Lee-Scott Friday.