It was the kind of opening night all coaches dream about.
Westminster could do very little wrong all evening and rolled to a 65-37 victory over Sherwood High of Montgomery County last night at Westminster.
Making the win even sweeter for the Owls was the fact that Sherwood ended Westminster's season last year in the 4A region semifinals with a 71-51 thrashing.
However, taking something away from the victory was the absence of Sherwood's 6-foot junior Meredith Pine who was out with a sprained ankle. In that 71-51 Sherwood rout, Pine dominated the game inside with 32 points.
With Pine watching from the bench, Westminster's 6-foot towers, Beth Lister and Jill Ibex, played their own game of volleyball on the backboards and simply took over.
Lister scored a career-high 27 points and had 10 rebounds to lead the Westminster assault, and Ibex pulled down a game-high 15 rebounds and had three points.
Lister and Ibex had plenty of help from guards Lauren Kadlubowski and Cassandra Conklin. Kadlubowski and Conklin seemed to spot Lister almost every time she broke down court and gave her the ball for several layups.
Conklin, picking right up where she left off last season, had 16 points, six assists and five rebounds. Kadlubowski led the winners with eight assists and had 10 rebounds and eight points.
Backup guard Lauren Henry turned in some beautiful passes as did Sandra Geiman.
In all, it was quite a show by all nine Westminster players who got into the game. Eight of the nine got into the scoring column.
Sherwood was able to keep the game close for the first half, trailing only 24-23 at halftime. But the Warriors' cause was hurt badly when their primary scoring threat Keisha Brooks collected her third and fourth fouls late in the second half.
Brooks left the game with 1:14 left in the first half and didn't return to the start of the fourth quarter. When Brooks departed, Sherwood was up, 23-21, and when she returned, the Owls were running off with a 45-32 lead.
Westminster gained that large lead with a 16-1 spurt in the third quarter. The Owls used a full-court press to unnerve Sherwood in the third quarter.
Brooks scored nine points before she left but was way off her game when she returned and finished with 11.
Sherwood coach Warren Crutchfield said: "I never expected Keisha to get her fourth foul that quick. She was our only spark without Meredith Pine. Meredith is a great inside player and just wouldn't have allowed Lister and Ibex to play Ping-Pong on the boards. She hurt her ankle in a scrimmage but will be back in about a week."
The Warriors also played without starting forward Ayana Lee who has to pass a physical clearing her to play after a broken leg she suffered last season.
When Westminster coach Bernie Koontz was asked if the absence of Pine took anything away from the victory, he said: "Pine would have made it a different game, that's for sure. She's a great post player and gives them a different look. But I wouldn't take anything away from the way our girls played. We took care of the basketball, ran our offense and were strong on the fundamentals."
Lister knew it was a much easier evening for her without Pine around.
"I only scored two points against her in the first game we played against them last year," said Lister. "She's good but we were ready to play tonight no matter who would have been out there. I
was surprised to get 27 points. It felt good."