The Permian girls basketball had a rough home opener.
Facing an aggressive, pressing Lubbock High squad, the Lady Panthers were on the wrong side of a 57-24 decision in a nondistrict game Tuesday at the Permian Fieldhouse.
The Lady Panthers committed more than a dozen turnovers in the first half, which resulted in several transition opportunities for the Lady Westerners.
“(The Lady Westerners) went to another level and we didn’t match it,” Lady Panthers’ head coach Michael Ellis said.
Lubbock High converted only half of those turnovers into points and only led by seven, 22-15, at halftime.
Lady Westerners sophomore Mecailin Marshall led the team with 11 points in the first half.
“Well, I didn’t think we played very well the first half, as we were forcing shots and we weren’t running our offense,” Lubbock High coach Brent Palmer said.
The Lady Westerners were in rhythm offensively immediately after halftime, as they went on a 9-0 run to open the lead to 31-15 in the wire-to-wire victory.
Lubbock High (2-0 overall) was able to find second-half success without implementing the full-court press, focused instead on the half-court game on both sides of the court.
“We finally settled down the second half and started running the offense a little bit better, as we got out of our press and we were able to get some good steals and extend the floor and and get some easy buckets,” Palmer said.
Akiva Brown led the Lady Panthers with nine points.
There was a positive for coach Ellis and the Lady Panthers (0-1).
“For two and a half quarters I thought that we played right there with (the Lady Westerners),” Ellis said. “We showed that that we can play with really good teams, at least for two and a half quarters.”
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