As far as statement wins go, this one was pretty loud.
The Douglas girls' basketball team put together a 41-19 lead in the first half, helped by an incredible defensive effort in the second quarter during which the Tigers allowed just three points, and cruised to a 71-49 win over the third-ranked Manogue Miners Friday night in Minden.
"That was one of the best halves I have ever seen," Douglas coach Werner Christen said. "The girls did a good job of prepping, the assistant coaches did a great job of getting them ready and it was just one of those games that you love to see as a coach.
"The spacing was good, we were good defensively. It was fun. Manogue is a tremendous team. They are very, very good. You play that well against a good team, it feels pretty good."
Douglas built a 21-16 lead through the first quarter, utilizing a brief 6-0 run on a pair of baskets from Bri Burnside and a putback from Jessica Waggoner midway through to scrape out some breathing room.
To open the second, Ne'Jae Jackson hit a pair of free throws and Taryn Williams hit short runner and a 3-pointer before Manogue's Taylor DeWeese banked in a 3-pointer with 4:20 left in the half.
The basket would end up being the only points for the Miners in the quarter.
In the meantime, Douglas rattled out 20 points in the second quarter alone, totaling one more than the Miners had in the entire game at that point.
Most of the Tigers' points came as a direct result of their aggressive full-court press defense, although they were just as effective with a variety of zone looks they showed during the first half.
"The defense created a lot of our offense tonight," Christen said. "Kudos to the kids. They studied a lot of film this week and executed the game plan the way we wanted them to."
Douglas closed out the half on a 13-0 run and had all the momentum heading into the second.
After a pair of Manogue baskets early in the third, the Tigers capitalized on another strong defensive stretch while getting 3-pointers from Williams and Waggoner over the next three minutes. The 12-3 run gave the Tigers what would end up being their biggest lead of the night at 29.
Manogue made things slightly closer with an 8-2 run to close out the third and a 9-0 run late in the fourth but the damage had already been done.
Waggoner led the Tigers with 24 points while Williams finished with 18. Ally Freitas had nine, Jackson finished with eight, Burnside had six, Dany Heidt and Megan Michitarian each had two and Katie Dry and Niki Hamzik each had one.
Manogue was led by Ashley Armstrong with 14, Taylor DeWeese had 10, Nicolle Aboumrad had nine and Katie Gray and Alex Luckadoo each had six.
Douglas improved to 12-8 overall and 3-2 in Sierra League play while Manogue dropped to 8-8, 4-1.
