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.”