McDonogh's girls basketball team didn't want to waste any time getting a jump on a talented, young Western team Thursday night.
The Doves, unranked at the beginning of the season, rose to No. 5 after beating then-No. 4 Poly two weeks ago. But Western could not handle the No. 2 Eagles, who ran a 12-point first-quarter lead into a 60-26 rout.
Eagles senior point guard Danielle Edwards, last season's All-Metro Player of the Year, got her team off to a quick start with a put-back, a 3-pointer and an assist on Andrea Robinson's bank shot for a 7-0 lead in less than two minutes.
Western (11-3) rallied with a 3-pointer from Jasmen Walton and a bank shot by Kierra Adams to pull within two, but the visiting Eagles (17-2) scored the next 11 points and rolled from there.
"I think the first spurt is the best to have, only because it gives you the momentum going into the game," said senior guard and All-Metro first-team selection Dajah Logan, who led the Eagles with 17 points. "When you start off with a lot of mistakes, it kind of wears you down, and that means you have to pick yourself back up, whereas starting off really big and starting off really aggressive puts the weight on the other team, like telling them: 'We're here and we're here to fight.' "
Logan hit two short jumpers to open the second quarter and finish a 17-3 run that gave McDonogh a 24-8 lead. The Eagles steadily built on that as the Doves, who shot 17.6 percent from the field, missed 10 straight shots.
The lead reached 19 when Taleah Dixon converted a turnover into a layup just before the halftime buzzer. Western did not hit a field goal in the second quarter and was held scoreless for the final 3:51 of the quarter.
The Doves got a little momentum early in the second half when Donye' Moses and Walton hit back-to-back shots, but the Eagles responded with a 10-1 run, taking a 44-17 lead after Dixon fed Kobli Green for a transition layup with 2:04 left in the third quarter.
Edwards finished with 16 points and three assist while Green added 12 points, 10 of them in the fourth quarter.
For the Eagles, who finished a four-game, seven-day stretch that included a lopsided win over No. 9 Archbishop Spalding and weekend wins over two strong New York teams, Long Island Lutheran and Francis Lewis, at the Rose Classic Super Jam in New York, a revved-up defense is making a big difference.
"People don't realize how good our defense can be when we play it well," Eagles coach Brad Rees said. "Long Island Lutheran was the same type of situation where they have some really good players, but they struggled a little bit with some of the defense of our players. When we're playing that level of defense, we're a pretty good team. It's a matter of maintaining that consistently."
The Eagles forced most of the Western's 17 turnovers.
For the Doves, who start a freshman, a sophomore and two juniors, coach Latasha Townsend wanted the challenge of playing the defending Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference champions.
"I just think they didn't challenge themselves today," Townsend said of her players. "My team had so many excuses why things didn't happen. We watched them play. We've seen who they have, what they have, but we didn't execute today. We are definitely a better team than we showed today."
None of the Doves scored in double figures. Walton led them with seven.
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