Quick start powers Conant by Addison Trail

Conant kicked off its girls basketball season Tuesday with a 45-23 win over Addison Trail. The Cougars came out with a 15-1 run and led 20-5 after the first quarter.

"It feels good," said Conant coach Dan Travers. "The kids have worked pretty hard to earn this. We played hard. We played with purpose."

Danielle Ladehoff had 10 of her game-high 12 points in the first half, and Conant led 32-10 going into the break.

"I'm very happy. We came out hard and played the way we wanted to," Ladehoff said. "Staying together was the key tonight. We were all nervous and anxious in the beginning of the game. Unity and communication was it."

Conant's defense not only shut down the Blazers in the first half, it also turned a lot of steals into baskets.

Emma Loos (8) had back-to-back baskets in the first quarter off consecutive steals.

"Our full-court press was pretty effective," Ladehoff said. "We had lots of steals and were able to convert."

Michelle Rawleigh had 10 first-half points including a pair of 3-pointers. Lisa Parisi (5) and Angie Lonski came off the bench to sink 3s.

"Everyone played excellent," Ladehoff said. "Everyone played as hard as they could. We all wanted to win. We wanted the 1-0 on the homecourt advantage."

Even after the first quarter, the Cougars controlled much of the pace with runs of 12-2 and 8-1 in the next two quarters.

After the break, both teams were even with 13 points the rest of the way.

"We didn't have quite the same intensity in the second half," Travers said. "They practiced hard and we're getting better. We just need to push (our first-half dominance) even further. There's room for growth."

That second half also saw the Blazers turn it up a little.

"We played well in the second half," said Addison Trail coach Rob Schader. "We kept it close in the second half. We switched it up a little defensive. We fought -- we could've easily gone down by 40. We played even in the second half. It's a step in the right direction."

Jenn Schulmeister scored 7 to lead the Blazers while teammate Erica Spear had 6, including a 3-pointer. Mercedes Rallings scored 4 off the bench.

Schader feels his team is already showing signs of improvement over last year, but the first half was just too much to overcome.

"We won only two games last year," Schader said. "We have four good seniors back. But offensively, we didn't get anything done tonight. We knew they were going to trap us. We turned the all over 15 times in the first half alone.

"That's going to be a big thing for us this year. I told them if we handle pressure, we'll do all right. We didn't handle pressure tonight."