The St. Elizabeth Lady Hornets grabbed control early.
They never let it go.
St. Elizabeth led 19-1 after one quarter Monday night on its way to a 75-27 victory against the Calvary Lutheran Lady Lions at Calvary Lutheran High School.
“We’ve been struggling a little bit, but we got our confidence tonight when we started shooting the ball well,” St. Elizabeth coach Quentin Voss said.
The Lady Lions were missing a handful of players, including some starters, due to a combination of illness and injury.
“We didn’t have our normal starters,” Calvary coach Ty Morris said. “And when you’re playing a great team like St. Elizabeth, a program that always is among the top teams in the district, we knew it was going to be a tough game.”
After a bit of a slow start, the Lady Hornets rattled off nine unanswered points in a 1:25 span to take a 9-0 lead midway through the first quarter. Sydney Volmert hit a free throw to get Calvary on the scoreboard before St. Elizabeth closed the quarter on a 10-0 run to make it 19-1.
“We got after them pretty good,” Voss said. “Trying to get out in transition and running, we haven’t been able to execute that much this season. Hopefully this means we start clicking a little better.”
St. Elizabeth was 8-of-15 from the field in the first eight minutes while forcing 11 Calvary turnovers.
“We had to pick our heads up because the first quarter was rough, there’s no other way to say it,” Morris said.
The Lady Hornets had a 10-0 run midway through the second quarter to extend its advantage to 31-8. After Calvary scored five of the next seven points, St. Elizabeth closed the half on a 7-0 run to take a 40-13 advantage into intermission.
“St. Elizabeth is one of the best examples around here at our level when we talk about the speed and intensity of the game,” Morris said. “This team is well-coached, they move well, they shoot well.”
A short jumper by Dani Heckemeyer closed the scoring in the third quarter to give St. Elizabeth a 60-21 lead.
The fourth quarter was played with the running clock.
“We played better in the second quarter, then really played better in the second half,” Morris said. “We were still missing some stuff, but it was better.”
Reagan Wobbe led four St. Elizabeth players in double figures with 25 points.
“She’s been playing really well, slashing and cutting to get some easy shots for herself,” Voss said.
Ella Lucas had a double-double for the Lady Hornets, finishing with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Heckemeyer chipped in with 15 points, while Charli Duemmel added 10.
Voss may have been happiest with the performance at the free-throw line by the Lady Hornets, who were 11-of-14 from the stripe.
“We’ve been shooting 37 percent on the year, so much better,” Voss said.
Sydney Morris finished with 15 points and six rebounds to lead Calvary.
St. Elizabeth (3-2) is back in action Thursday at Crocker.
After playing four games in seven days, Calvary is off until it plays next Monday at Dixon.
“We should be back to almost full strength,” Ty Morris said.
In Monday night’s two-quarter JV game, St. Elizabeth defeated Calvary Lutheran 20-12.