ST. MARYS -St. Marys conquered one demon in major fashion after surpassing the century mark in a 108-69 victory against Williamstown on Friday night.
The Blue Devils had not forgotten about last year's sectional championship loss to the Yellowjackets.
"After losing in the sectional finals, we had a long year to get ready for them," St. Marys coach Howard Meeks said.
Behind 36 points and 17 rebounds from Audra Clark, St. Marys remained perfect at 4-0 both overall and in the North Division of the Little Kanawha Conference. Normally a starter, teammate Dani Moore came off the bench to finish with 24 points and five assists.
A total of four Blue Devils scored in double figures, including Ashley Hall and Kendra Walker with 14 and 12 points, respectively. Walker also produced a double-double after pulling down 10 boards.
Exactly 24 hours earlier, the St. Marys varsity boys basketball team piled up 106 points in a win at Wirt County.
"As long as (Williamstown coach Fred Sauro) never let up, I can't teach my girls to let up," Meeks said. "They didn't change their gameplan, so I guess we came to entertain tonight."
Kenzie Smith led Williamstown (1-3, 1-1 LKC North) with 19 points, while Kathleen Cornell added 14 points.
"We were a little bewildered," Sauro said. "St. Marys scored quickly and early. They were very well prepared.
"I think they really wanted to beat us bad because of last year, and I hope they got all their frustration out tonight."
Despite scoring the first bucket of the game, Williamstown looked out of sync after falling behind 15-2 three minutes into the first quarter.
A 3-pointer from Kathleen Cornell kept the deficit at 13 (23-10) when St. Marys reeled off nine straight points in the final 55 seconds of the period.
Clark knocked down her first five attempts from the floor and outscored Williamstown in the first eight minutes after accounting for 12 points.
"We didn't play our game in the first quarter - we didn't play real hard or real together, and we didn't have a whole lot of fun," Sauro said.
Hall paced the Blue Devils' 28-point output in the second quarter by sinking a pair of 3-pointers as part of her eight-point effort, which left the Yellowjackets trailing 60-32 at intermission.
Even though St. Marys made five of its first six field goal attempts to start the second half.
Williamstown earned a moral victory by outscoring the Blue Devils 24-22 in the third quarter as Carley Ellison contributed seven of her 12 points during that span. Ellison's back-end of a double-double featured 11 rebounds.
Once St. Marys extended the lead to 92-63 early in the fourth quarter, the Blue Devils' student section began the countdown for the number of points needed to reach triple-digits. Moore obliged when he set up shop just inside arc and made the jumper to put her club in front 101-67 with 2:23 still remaining in regulation.
Williamstown never let up on the defensive pressure and forced a total of 40 turnovers for the game, but the Yellowjackets also suffered their share of breakdowns. St. Marys turned those lapses into easy buckets in transition and shot 64.2 percent (43-of-67) from the floor.
How fresh the legs are will be determined tonight when St. Marys returns to its home floor to play host to Madonna.
"We're ready to go," Meeks said. "I don't know if it will be 108 points again. Hopefully, someone will let us slow down a little bit."
