Ouachita never trailed as the Lady Warriors cruised to a 63-28 rout of Cutter Morning Star Thursday night at Eagle Arena.
Emma Williams and Lizzy Rowton got things going early for the Lady Warriors (16-3) with Williams hitting three treys in the first 5:30 of the game for a 14-0 lead en route to a 20-0 lead going into the second.
"Just creating havoc on defense and getting some drives and kicking it out, so when the shots fall it makes everything else easier," Ouachita head coach Corey Brown said. "Shots aren't going to fall every night, but if we can keep our energy up, then we can make other things go for us and the shots will eventually fall. So that's kind of what I've been preaching is, bring the energy, and they've been buying in and meshing well with that."
Cutter Morning Star head coach Matthew Graham said that his team was missing three players for the game.
"Well overall, once again, we were short two girls due to one having to be quarantined and another was out because she had an injury, and so for being short-handed I thought we did pretty well," he said. "You can't spot a good team 20 points and then expect to stay in the game. That was tough, but we're steadily improving and steadily building a little bit of confidence, so hopefully this is going to pay us off when we get to the district tournament."
The Lady Eagles (1-10) hit a 6-0 spurt to start the second quarter with junior Sierra Wilmath putting up a free throw before sophomore Jaley Anderson hit a jumper followed by a 3-pointer by Wilmath to pull within 20-6. The Lady Warriors responded with a 12-2 run going into the final three minutes of the half. Cutter Morning Star added just 7 before the break as Ouachita took a 42-15 lead into intermission.
Ouachita's Lizzy Rowton opened the second half with a steal and layup followed by a 3-pointer as the Lady Warriors hit an 11-2 run to take a 53-17 lead with 2:50 left in the third. Sophomore Masann Hamilton banked one in off the glass before junior Selena Gasca hit back-to-back buckets to pull within 32 points, but Linsey Sirratt found Gabby Buras inside for a bucket with 2 seconds remaining for a 59-24 lead going into the final eight minutes.
Tess Kuykendall hit a pair of free throws to open the fourth followed by a baseline jumper by Sirratt. Gasca responded with a jumper in the lane before a steal and layup to set the final.
"We kind of started off slow shooting-wise, but our defense played well," Brown said. "Got the energy going, we turned some defense into offense, and then I thought that kind of opened up offensive game there."
Rowton led Ouachita with 21 points, nine rebounds, six steals, an assist and a block while Williams added 15 points, six rebounds, five steals, two assists and a block. Buras had 13 points, five rebounds, one steal and one block, Sirratt had 11 points, four rebounds, a pair of rebounds and a pair of assists, and Kuykendall and Aileen Ables each added 4 points with Kuykendall tallying three rebounds, a steal and an assist.
Gasca led Cutter Morning Star with 11 points, three rebounds, two steals and a block. Wilmath followed with 6 points and four rebounds while Anderson added 5 points, six rebounds and two assists. Hamilton had 4 points with three rebounds and Stormie Cudvat had 2 points with five rebounds and a steal.
Cutter Morning Star plays Tuesday at Mountain Pine (0-8) while Ouachita hosts Trinity Christian on Tuesday.