It was the District 5-A opener for both teams, but Silverdale Baptist Academy girls' basketball coach Victor Underwood didn't take lightly his team's 43-35 victory at Arts & Sciences on Tuesday, even though there are three months of the high school regular season before postseason begins.
"I told the girls before the game that this was a big game," Underwood said, sensing the Lady Patriots could be the biggest threat to the Lady Seahawks in the chase for the regular-season championship. "I think this one's going to matter at the end of the year. We had to have it."
Silverdale (5-2) led most of the game. CSAS led 8-7 at the end of the first quarter, but after SBA's Emily Harkleroad made a 3-point shot from the right corner for the first points of the second quarter, the Lady Patriots never led again.
The Lady Seahawks pushed their advantage to 23-14 late in the first half, but they never led by that many again. Instead, the Lady Patriots used their full-court defense to battle back, and they tied it at 28 on Lamiah Walker's steal and layup with 2:21 to go in the third quarter.
"We're experimenting with that, but we're not deep enough to do that for an extended period of time," CSAS coach Zach Dragoo said of the press. "At times we executed pretty well. The only way that's going to get better is to gain experience. We'd like to be able to create some of the offense with our defense. We did that at times, but when we get those opportunities, we've got to finish it."
Maddie Caldwell broke the tie, scoring underneath with 1:28 left in the third. Silverdale kept the lead the rest of the way.
"Their guards are really good at pressuring the basketball," Underwood said. "I know they turned us over a bunch tonight. We got in a little foul trouble in the first half with Emily and Rachel (Sanders). That was part of it. With those two off the court, we're not as good."
Harkleroad led SBA with 19 points. Katie White's first points came at 5:09 of the second quarter and she went on to score 10.
Lamiah Walker and Lennex Walker each totaled 10 points for CSAS (0-3).
"It's going to be a process," Dragoo said. "We're not there yet. But we're much better than we were two weeks ago. We'll get there, as long as they listen and buy in, which they have.
"We've got to fix all these things, but they're very fixable. It's just going to take time and experience."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.