Dec 12, 2003 By Mike Ciarochi 3 min read

Laurel Highlands gave up only 11 field goals in its 55-36 Section 2-AAAA win over Peters Township at the Harold “Horse” Taylor Memorial Gymnasium Thursday night. “I thought we did a really good job of contesting the basketball tonight,” Fillies coach Rick Hauger said. “We made it tougher for them offensively to move the ball when they wanted to.”

Kayla Ashton paced the LH offense with 17 points, including thee three-pointers, while Lauren Mahoney added 15 points. Hallie Cupp scored 11 points and had eight rebounds.

Peters Township played most of the game without three-year starter Leigh Sherratt, who suffered a knee injury and finished with only two points.

Lady Indians coach Dave Welsh said she averages about 15 points per game.

Perhaps as a combination of the LH defense and the absence of Sherratt, the Lady Indians struggled to score.

Liz Schaeffer led the way with 10 points, while Malley Adamsky added nine points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

“We got some pretty good shots, but we didn’t make many shots, did we?” Welsh asked rhetorically. “But there was a lot that I liked in this game. The kids played hard to the end. We’re putting new things in and the kids are responding. We’re hoping to make a run at things in the second half of the season.”

Ashton helped the Fillies take an 8-2 lead in the early going with a pair of three-pointers, but Peters Township battled back to make it 8-7.

But LH ran off the next 12 points for a 20-7 lead.

“We never really recovered from that spurt,” Welsh said. “We stayed close and kept battling, but we couldn’t get close enough.”

An 8-2 run in the second quarter kept the Fillies in control and they led at halftime, 32-18. The Lady Indians made a run at the Fillies midway through the third quarter, closing LH’s lead to 10 at 37-27, but Ashton hit another trey to make it 40-27 with 2:30 remaining in the third and that’s all the closer PT could get.

“They shot well, but that didn’t really surprise us because we knew they were an excellent shooting team,” Welsh said.

“It’s a hard job holding them down because they are very patient. They move the ball well and find their shooters and their shooters score. They are a strong, scrappy team.”

“We had pretty good patience tonight,” Hauger said. “We have been inconsistent with our patience, but we’re getting better.

“We put Kayla on the point tonight simply because Abby Martin missed the last game with the flu, so we didn’t want to overwork her. Kayla’s a shooter.”

The win helped Laurel Highlands overcome a section-opening loss at Trinity and leveled the section slate at 1-1. The Fillies are 4-2 overall. Peters Township fell to 2-4 overall and 0-2 in section games. LH travels to Connellsville Monday.

“It’s going to be a dogfight every night for us,” Hauger said. “This section will be very competitive. Hopefully, we can be a factor.”