The shots weren't falling early for the Eugene Lady Eagles, so it was on to Plan B.
Turn up the defense and attack the basket relentlessly.
That option turned a slow start for Eugene into a 73-46 win against the Stoutland Lady Tigers on Saturday to kick off the Central Bank Shootout at Rackers Fieldhouse.
Eugene's defense forced 27 turnovers and the offense improved to shoot 40 percent from the field.
"We just needed to get that swag going," Eugene coach Mike Phillips said. "The best part about it is we have some experienced girls, so they knew as long as we believed in each other and got the ball inside, we would finally get going."
Eugene missed its first eight shots and fell behind 7-1 a little more than four minutes into the game. Jodi Polly ended the drought with a basket at the 3:08 mark, but Stoutland answered with a 3-pointer to lead by as many as seven points in the opening quarter.
The momentum shifted toward Eugene's favor as the fouls piled up for Stoutland. The Lady Tigers committed 14 fouls in the first half and four players went into halftime with three fouls each.
The Lady Eagles shot 20 free-throw attempts in the first half, making 14 of them.
"Once the shots started going in, whether it be layups or free throws, then everybody had a little more confidence," Phillips said.
Lexi Dickerson made a pair of free throws with 4:39 left in the first half to give Eugene its first lead of the game at 21-20. After Stoutland answered with a basket by Rebecca Looney on the ensuing possession, Hannah Burks made two more free throws to give the lead back to the Lady Eagles for good at the 3:58 mark.
Eugene didn't hesitate to attack to basket against Stoutland's 2-3 zone. Even as the Lady Tigers created a wall with three players lined up in front of the basket during in-bounds plays, the Lady Eagles would lob the entry pass above their hands and, on multiple occasions, the player catching the pass drew a foul to get to the free-throw line.
"That's not a play that usually works more than once a game," Phillips said. "They covered the baseline and we spread our guards out, so there's really nobody to cover that lob."
Eugene led 34-29 at intermission and then started the second half on a 12-1 run.
"Once we get that bigger lead, we play a little bit more aggressive on defense," Phillips said. " Once we get that lead up to 10, 12 or 15, we start gambling a little bit more, and that usually leads to good things for us."
Dickerson missed her first four shots from the floor, but the Eugene senior would find her groove. She scored the first 10 points of the fourth quarter to extend the Lady Eagles' lead to 64-40.
Dickerson finished with a game-high 27 points.
"She got to the free-throw line and got her touch back a little bit," Phillips said of Dickerson, who shot 8-of-9 at the free-throw line.
Eugene held Stoutland to 23 percent shooting in the second half.
Nine of the 11 Lady Eagles who played would score Saturday. Polly finished with 10 points and Nicole Koetting had eight points and a team-high nine rebounds.
Looney had 10 points to lead Stoutland, which had all nine players get into the scoring column.
Eugene (12-9), which is riding a five-game win streak, will host Crocker on Monday.