The Heritage Academy girls basketball team used its full-court press for two minutes Tuesday night - the final two minutes of the first half against Grace Academy.
That was enough for the Eagles to force five turnovers and rip off a 10-0 run to end the half with a 25-8 lead before coasting to a 50-35 victory in the Knights' gym in a Mason Dixon Christian Conference game.
"We normally score a lot off of our defense," Heritage coach Ed Dorsey said. "That's what happened late in the second quarter."
"They are by far a faster team than we are," Grace coach Curtis Litten said. "The problem is, we're young ... and their speed is much more than we can handle."
The Heritage boys used a hot-shooting first half and 17 Grace turnovers to race to a 38-12 halftime lead on the way to a 64-41 victory in the nightcap of the MDCC doubleheader.
In the girls game, Morgan McIntire scored Heritage's first 13 points over the first 13 minutes of the game, giving the Eagles (8-4, 5-2) a 13-8 lead. She had four more in the 10-0 run, and finished her night with 10 fourth-quarter points for 30 total. She also had 13 rebounds and five steals.
"We had a tournament last weekend, and we were exhausted," McIntire said. "We struggled at first until we started working together on defense and getting rebounds."
"She hustled good on both sides of the ball and got a lot of transition points," Dorsey said. "We got a lot of good looks, and they didn't all go in, but I was pleased with it."
Bri Dorsey was a defensive force for Heritage with 10 steals and eight rebounds.
Kelsie Shaffer was a bright spot for Grace (4-8, 3-4) with 21 points and 17 rebounds. Tori Aikens added eight rebounds.
"(Shaffer) knows she's the senior leader, and she has a switch she can turn on," Litten said. "I get that night in and night out from her."
· Heritage turned the boys game into a laugher, displaying crisp ball movement and making 9 of 15 shots in the first quarter and 5 of 8 in the second to build a 26-point halftime lead. Andrew Hendershot hit three first-half 3-pointers and tied teammate Cody Butts for game-high scoring honors with 13 points.
"Grace is young and they're working hard. We were able to get up on them early," Eagles coach Mike Kidd said. "The ball movement opened it up for Andrew and he hit a few 3s. The guys were sharing the ball well."
Troy Cosner came off the bench for seven points and 10 rebounds, while Butts had six assists and Hendershot added four steals for Heritage (8-1, 7-0).
Caleb Serafini scored 11 points and Kenny Frederickson added 10 for Grace (0-10, 0-7).