Lady Trojans win Blue Eye Invitational championship

Tournament champions Democrat Photo by Lee Stubblefield The Southwest Lady Trojans, pictured above, defeated Blue Eye, 52-21, to win the 2012 Blue Eye Invitational tournament. In the front row, from left, are: Jaime Shrum, Cady Swindle and Nicole Ickes. Back row: coach Brad Phillips, Jessica Morgan, Michaela Mitchell, Montana Hendrix, Taylor Mettlach and Shannon Mitchell.

Brad Phillips watched his team start the season 3-0, as the Southwest girls held Blue Eye under 10 points in each of the four quarters. The game was over at halftime after the Lady Trojans turned the second period into a 15-2 run to take a 33-10 lead into the locker room.

"We were ready to play," said Phillips. "Our defense did a great job of holding them to 21 points."

Michaela Mitchell led Southwest with 16 points.

Southwest exploded to an 18-8 lead at the first break. Montana Hendrix scored 8 of her 10 points in the opening period.

Blue Eye held a 6-5 lead when Tressa Linson drove down the lane and scored with a left-handed hook. Hendrix answered immediately with a long trey from the left wing, and Southwest finished the quarter with a 13-2 run.

Blue Eye trailed by 31 points late in the third period and scored the final 5 points of that frame to cut the lead to 43-17 at the final break. The hosts added the first 4 points of the fourth period to that run, but then Southwest scored the final 7 points of the contest to finish the game with a running clock.

Southwest scorers: Michaela Mitchell, 16 points; Hendrix, 10; Jaime Shrum and Taylor Mettlach, 9 each; Nicole Ickes, 7; and Shannon Mitchell, 1.

Blue Eye scorers: Linson, 8 points; Cheyenne Sheets, 5; Taylor Miller, 4; and Aubree Riepl and Abigail Redford, 2 each.

The Lady Trojans return to action on Friday, Dec. 7 when they host the McAuley Lady Warriors at 5:30 p.m.