Feb 4, 2003 By Rob Burchianti 3 min read

Laurel Highlands made swift, efficient work of visiting Canon-McMillan to wrap up at least a tie for second place in Section 2-AAAA Monday night. Deena Blanc celebrated Senior Night by totaling 17 points, six steals and five assists and led a Fillies’ defense that allowed only five field goals in a 50-14 girls basketball victory at Harold “Horse” Taylor Memorial Gymnasium.

Laurel Highlands improved to 15-7 overall and 10-3 in section play to move one game ahead of Ringgold, which fell to section champion Albert Gallatin Monday.

The Fillies finish regular-season play at Albert Gallatin Thursday.

Abby Martin followed Blanc in the Laurel Highlands’ scoring column with nine points, including the first seven of the game with a 3-pointer and a pair of jump shots as the Fillies galloped out to an 11-0 lead and never looked back.

Laurel Highlands led 13-5, 29-9 and 40-12 at the breaks.

The Fillies’ defense was so dominant it held the Lady Macs (5-17, 1-11) scoreless for long stretches at the beginning of each period. Canon-McMillan’s first points of each quarter came at 3:31 in the first, 3:00 of the second, 0:49 of the third and 4:02 of the fourth.

Still, Laurel Highlands coach Rick Hauger thought his team could’ve played better and commended the Lady Macs’ effort.

“Actually, in the first half, I thought they out-worked us,” Hauger said. “They got to a greater percentage of rebounds and loose balls. We got a majority of our points off our defense. So I thought the score was misleading.

“But in the second half I thought we started working a little harder, picked up the tempo and started to be more aggressive.”

Canon-McMillan did out-rebound the Fillies in the first half and led on the boards 32-25 for the game.

Taryn Gibson led Canon-McMillan in scoring with six points and Erika Patterson grabbed a game-high seven rebounds. Caitlin Terling had six boards for the Lady Macs. Gibson and Terling came off the bench as the Lady Mac starters totaled only three points, all by Patterson.

In addition to Blanc and Martin, the Fillies got fine overall performances from starters Hallie Cupp (six points, six rebounds, two steals, one assist, one blocked shot), Lauren Mahoney (five points with a 3-pointer, four rebounds, three steals and one assist) and Diane Gmiter (five points, five rebounds, three assists, one steal). Taylor Johns had two points, three rebounds and two steals to lead the LH reserves.

Hauger commended his seniors – Blanc, Gmiter and Allyson Nehls, who scored one point – after the game.

“This has been a good group of seniors,” Hauger said. “Obviously, Deena has gotten a lot of recognition and has earned all the accolades she’s received. She’s a tremendous competitor.

“Diane has worked extremely hard. She’s not the most gifted or the most talented player, but comes to compete every practice and every game. She’s over-matched size-wise inside every game, but always battles for us in there.

“Allyson is a very aggressive competitor, also, who has improved tremendously the last couple years. She’s always was a good defender, but she’s developed her shot and comes in frequently to give us a lift off the bench.

“As a group they’ve done just about everything expected of them and have set a good example for the younger kids for the competitiveness and work ethic you have to bring to practice and to the game to be successful.”

Canon-McMillan coach Gary Popiolkowski was unavailable for comment after the game.