OXFORD — Thanks to a solid effort from the bench and increased defensive pressure, Wilmington pulled away from Talawanda Monday night for a 52-30 win in non-conference girls basketball action at the THS gym.

Wilmington is now 13-5 on the year. Talawanda is now 13-6. The Lady Braves had won five straight games coming into Monday night’s contest.

“Our bench gave us great minutes,” WHS coach Zach Williams said.

The Lady Hurricane and Lady Braves were tied at 9-9 after one quarter. Wilmington had five turnovers in the opening period.

With a better handle on the ball the rest of the way, WHS exploded for 14 points in the second and took a 23-13 lead into the half. Faith Sanderson had 9 of her 13 points in the second quarter and Mya Jackson added five.

“Our defensive pressure picked up a notch,” Williams said. “We got a lot more points in transition. We turned them over and we didn’t turn it over as much.”

Wilmington had just four turnovers in the final three quarters “so that’s promising,” Williams noted.

The WHS offensive outburst continued in the third with Jackson netting 10 as the Lady Hurricane went up 35-19 after three.

The Lady Braves offense struggled. Emma Wright and Addie Brown come into the game averaging a combined 30 points, Williams said. They were held to 14.

“They have some good girls. They’ll be in a battle for their league (title) with Edgewood,” said Williams. “Mya, Katlyn (Jamiel) and Jasmine (Jamiel) did a great job on those two (Brown and Wright).”

In the fourth, Wilmington finished things off as Jackson scored 9 and Leah Frisco added 6.

Jackson finished with a game-high 26 points. Frisco had a game-best 12 rebounds for the Lady Hurricane.

SUMMARY

January 28, 2017

@Talawanda High School

Wilmington 52 Talawanda 30

W 09.14.12.17…..52

T 09.04.06.11…..30

(52) WILMINGTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) J. Jamiel 2-0-0-4 Jackson 11-3-1-26 Quallen 0-0-0-0 McCord 0-0-0-0 Harris 0-0-0-0 Sanderson 5-1-2-13 K. Jamiel 0-0-0-0 Fryman 0-0-0-0 Morgan 0-0-0-0 Edingfield 1-0-0-2 Frisco 3-0-1-7 Victor 0-0-0-0. TOTALS 22-4-4/10-52

(30) TALAWANDA (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Wright 1-0-4-6 Bennison 0-0-0-0 Lindley 0-0-0-0 Brown 1-1-5-8 Koontz 2-0-2-6 Bennett 0-0-0-0 Woodruff 2-0-2-6 Hurst 2-0-0-4 Dowers 0-0-0-0. TOTALS 8-1-13/23-30