Both teams entered the early season contest with 3-3 records but the Panthers scored early and often to set the tone.
The Panthers, who start five seniors, executed their half court offense early and found Brynn Brown open in the corner on consecutive possessions and she nailed the 3’s. Ashlynn Johnson also found the range on a bomb midway through the opening period to make it 11-4. Rockridge used a full court zone press during the game but the Panthers experience helped attack it and led to some easy baskets. The first quarter ended with EP up 15-7.
The Panthers man-to-man defense did well throughout the contest as the Rockets seldom got easy looks at the basket. A balanced attack of six Panthers each tallied a bucket in the second 8 minutes and Eden Jensen’s second basket, a layup at the buzzer made it 29-16 at the half.
Rockridge scored the first bucket of the third period before Jensen’s layup started an 8 point surge by the hosts making it 37-18 midway through the period. EP led 41-20 after three.
Lauren Abbott connected on a three ball to start the fourth and the Panthers led 51-25 with 3 minutes left when substitutes were called upon to finish things out.
The Panthers balanced scoring attack that had 10 girls score was led by Jensen with 10 and Brown with 8.
Head coach Chris Brown was very happy with his squads defensive effort all night. He also mentioned how well the girls ran the court leading to some easy buckets and the outside shooting to start was tremendous.
The Panther Sophomores coached by Amanda Abbott stayed undefeated moving to 6-0 with a 34-0 whitewashing of a depleted Rockridge squad.
The focus now is getting ready for a good Newman team that comes to Erie Thursday for a 5:30 sophomore start followed by the varsity.
