Girls Preparatory School's basketball team got its Christmas break and its time at the Best of Preps tournament off to a good start with a 51-26 win against Soddy-Daisy on Wednesday at Chattanooga State.
GPS junior Mackenzie Jennings led all scorers with 17 points, and fellow Bruiser J.J. Dunigan had 14 as they took advantage of a Lady Trojans defense focused on stopping junior guard Brooke McCurdy.
"I knew I had to step up, because they were playing a box-and-one on Brooke," Jennings said. "My teammates being able to help me get open and shoot, and have confidence to shoot, was really important."
Soddy-Daisy led 6-3 midway through the first quarter, but the Bruisers (7-4), who used an up-tempo offense throughout the game, went on a 17-3 run the next eight minutes and took a 20-14 lead into halftime.
"They made it tough on their defense," GPS coach Wes Moore said. "J.J. was attacking very well, got in the middle of the paint a lot, and then Mackenzie stepped up and made a bunch of shots, which relieved a lot of pressure off everybody else."
The Lady Trojans (5-8) scored the first two points of the third quarter to pull within four, but that was as close as they got. GPS put the game away with another run, this time rattling off 13 straight points in the next four minutes.
McCurdy found more space in the second half, when she scored 12 points to finish with 16.
Alexis Trimiar led Soddy-Daisy with 13 points.
GPS faces Red Bank (5-3) in a semifinal at 7 p.m. Thursday.
Soddy-Daisy takes on Arts & Sciences (1-7) in a consolation-bracket game Thursday at 1 p.m.
Contact Kevin Llewallyn at sports@timesfreepress.com.