Pike Liberal’s varsity girls’ basketball team was the only squad to escape the trip to Edgewood Academy Monday evening. The No. 5 Lady Patriots destroyed Edgewood 54-11.

“I thought we played a lot better overall tonight,” PLAS head coach Steven Kilcrease said. “We moved the ball on offense and we obviously played a lot better on defense.”

Kilcrease said Pike (11-8) used the second half of the game to prepare for the team’s upcoming region games.

“We were not playing a quality team like we have been playing, but our girls did some good things tonight. We got good play from our post players and our guards set up their shots all night. And that was good to see.”

The Lady Patriots face Hooper and Macon-East Tuesday and Friday, respectively in their final two region contests.

“We talked at halftime, when we were up big, about working on some stuff to get ready for Hooper and Macon-East,” Kilcrease said. “And we did just that in the second half.”

Anna Saunders led the Lady Pats with 12 points. Eady Pinckard had eight points and 10 rebounds. Josie Griffin pitched in six points and 11 steals and Alla Anderson had six points off the bench.

If Pike wins the next two games, it has a great chance to grab the No. 2 seed in the Region tournament.

“There is a lot at stake this week,” Kilcrease said. “We have beaten both these teams before, but we saw how that went last Friday with Glenwood. Anyone can beat you and we talked about that after this game.”

The varsity boys, JV boys and JV girls all lost Monday, but scores were not available at press time.