Top-ranked St. Frances set the tempo early in yesterday's game with East Baltimore neighborhood rival and No. 3 Institute of Notre Dame.
The Panthers used a swarming, pressure defense to force early turnovers and then converted six of their first nine shots to run up a 13-point lead. Feeding off that start, the Panthers went on to take a 59-48 victory before a standing-room-only crowd at IND.
In the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference game, St. Frances (5-1, 4-1 conference) forced 37 IND turnovers.
The Indians (4-2, 2-1) struggled to find an offensive rhythm early as the Panthers hounded every player with the ball, especially All-Metro guard Chandrea Jones to keep her from beating them off the dribble.
Although Jones led the Indians with 12 points, she managed just two field goals - both three-pointers.
"They put a lot of pressure on our guards and we couldn't get into our offensive sets, which is what we're better at," said IND senior guard Katie Hoelter.
St. Frances coach Jerome Shelton, whose bench seems endless, used nine players without missing a defensive beat.
"Our defense has been great so far," said Shelton. "Our pressure brings us points, so we wanted to get in the game defensively first and we knew our offense would come."
The Indians' defense was not effective early and coach Herb Hoelter admitted that going with a zone had been a poor choice.
"In the first half, we thought we would control them with a zone, because they haven't shot that well this year," said Hoelter, "but they came out firing, made a lot of shots and jumped us quickly."
Half of the Panthers' first 12 points came on layups off steals.
"In past games, we were getting the fast breaks, but missing the layups and this time we made them," said St. Frances guard Shadae Swan.
The Panthers ran their lead as high as 46-20, led by the inside game of 6-foot-1 All-Metro forward Angel McCoughtry (14 points, 10 rebounds) and the contributions of guards Swan (13 points, three steals, three assists) and Tammy Rogers (11 points, seven steals, five assists).
After that, however, the Indians, who had abandoned the zone for a man-to-man defense, rallied, beginning with a nine-point run in which seven points came from the free-throw line.
The Indians steadily cut into the Panthers' lead, eventually getting within 10 on Amber Smith's short jumper, but that came with just 47 seconds left.
"We didn't get out and challenge them on the perimeter," said McCoughtry, after IND hit two three-pointers and a couple other jumpers in the final 5:30.