When the Peacock Toilers are on their game they can get rolling in a hurry.
Their defence causes turnovers which springs their lethal transition game and after they’ve scored their press defence is set to create another turnover.
Thursday the Toilers used their fast-break offence to beat the Meath Park Mustangs 93-65 in the opening game of the Moose Jaw Senior Girls Invitational Basketball Tournament.
Despite the final score, the game was closer than it looked until Peacock was able to pull away in the second half.
“We knew they were going to have a good team and that’s how we wanted to start the tournament,” said Peacock coach Renee Verge. “We had to work for that and that’s great for us.”
Meath Park’s Lexi Rowden hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to cut the Toilers lead to 12 at half. Rowden, a six-foot Grade 10 post, finished with 35 points including six three-pointers.
Verge was happy with her team’s second half adjustments.
“We settled in and ran what we wanted to,” she said. “We thought we had to sharpen up defensively. We gave up 22 points in the first quarter. That’s a lot of points to give up. We tried to work on our defence more than anything and when you play good defence, the offence will take care of itself.
“It we’re boxing out, not giving up second and third shots, then we can run our fast break offence and that’s exactly what happened in the second half.”
The Toilers play at a high tempo and senior post Amy Williams said that suits them. Not only does it wear down their opponents, but offensively they play more instinctually and react instead of over-thinking.
“With a fast tempo we don’t think as much and then we don’t make those little mistakes that we might make if we thought too much about it,” said Williams who finished with 32 points.
Megan Crone finished with 13 points, including four threes, while Caitlyn Kitts had 17 points.
The Toilers will face Prince Albert St. Mary Friday in a quarter-final (7:30 p.m., Peacock) after St. Mary beat Fillmore 37-33. In the other game Thursday, Balgonie beat Melfort 42-27.
