WARDSVILLE, Mo. - The Fatima Lady Comets might not have put together one of their best shooting performances of the season.
But they more than made up for it with their pressure defense and rebounding.
"I was very pleased with those two aspects of the game, for sure," Fatima coach Dustin Hays said Saturday after the Lady Comets rolled to a 54-23 win against Blair Oaks. "We're still a work in progress offensively."
Fatima (10-1) was 20-of-52 from the field, but forced 24 turnovers and out-rebounded Blair Oaks (4-4) 33-26 - 17-12 on the offensive glass.
"Fatima is a good team," Blair Oaks coach Leroy Bernskoetter said. "They're 10-1 for a reason. They scrap, they're aggressive, they're just a good team."
Morgan Brandt scored a game-high 12 points to lead Fatima, while Annie Bock added nine and Leah Kesel finished with eight for the Comets, who limited the Lady Falcons to a 8-of-35 performance from the field.
"Defensively, we were talking about getting pressure up top, but also sprinting back," Hays said. "We got a lot of turnovers on the other side of the floor when we sprinted back and got into position."
Fatima jumped out to a 17-4 lead after the first quarter after going 6-of-15 from the field and forcing 10 turnovers and the Lady Comets didn't look back from there.
Lauren Viessman scored five quick points to open up the second quarter to bring Blair Oaks within eight, but Fatima responded with a 15-0 run over the next 6:30 before entering the break with a 32-13 advantage.
"I think we got a little shell-shocked," Bernskoetter said. "No matter how hard we worked this last week at practice, I don't think they understood what was going to come at them."
Brandt knocked down three 3-pointers in the third quarter as the Lady Comets outscored Blair Oaks 18-6 in the period to take a 50-19 advantage into the fourth and Fatima held off the Lady Falcons comfortably down the stretch.
"Defensively, I'm very, very pleased with how the girls played and how hard the girls played," Hays said. "Offensively, we've still got some work to do, but overall I'm very pleased."
Fatima will host Southern Boone on Monday, while the Lady Falcons will try to regroup before hosting Centralia on Tuesday.
"You've got to learn from the loss," Bernskoetter said. "Sometimes you can learn from a W, but I think you can learn a lot from a loss. We've got to keep our heads up. The season's not over."