<p>Starting the season with eight consecutive road games had the Greenwood Christian girls basketball team eager to finally play one on its home floor.</p>
<p>The enthusiasm was quite evident.</p>
<p>Izzy Reed fueled a 22-1 first-half run and the Class A No. 9 Cougars kept Edinburgh at arm’s length the rest of the night on the way to a 73-57 victory on Thursday night.</p>
<p>"We were just really eager to finally play here, and we just wanted to come out and make a statement," said Reed, who finished with 23 points, 20 rebounds, six assists and five steals. "It’s a county school, we’re both 1A, so we kind of want to show them who we are and make a statement."</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
<p>Up by just one midway through the first period, the Cougars (7-2) started their takeover largely on the defensive end, coming up with six steals in the opening quarter. Three of those led directly to layups, including one by Savvanah Frye that made it 19-5 going into the second.</p>
<p>GCA kept its run going, with a pair of Dory O’Dell baskets helping stretch the lead out to 27-5 with 5:33 remaining in the half.</p>
<p>"In order for us to reach the next level, we really have to pick up our defense," Reed said, "so we’ve been trying to focus on that lately."</p>
<p>Edinburgh finally stopped the bleeding with five straight points, but 3s by Reed and Alexis Mead helped the Cougars maintain a comfortable edge, and it was still 37-20 come halftime.</p>
<p>Baskets by Haven Link and Callie Hancock to start the third quarter made it a 13-point game, but GCA answered with an O’Dell bucket, a Reed three-point play and a Frye 3 to extend the lead back to 45-24. Turnovers, though, prevented the home team from landing the knockout punch, and a 3-pointer from Edinburgh’s Gracie Crawhorn just before the end of the period made it 49-35.</p>
<p>Edinburgh (6-3) got as close as 10 points, 51-41, on a Destiney Ramey free throw with 5:37 remaining in the contest, but GCA put together a 7-0 spurt shortly thereafter to end any thoughts of a Lancer comeback.</p>
<p>"We kind of got in our own way," Greenwood Christian coach Alan Weems said of his team’s uneven second half. "We took some ill-advised shots. We turned it over too many times. We only had three turnovers at half, but I’ll bet you we had a lot more than that in the second half. So as a result, we let them back in, but I’ll tell you what — every time they made a run, we answered."</p>
<p>Mead and Ellie Bigelow each finished with 16 points for GCA, while Frye added 12. Link paced the Lancers in defeat with 20 points, while Annelise Lollar scored 14 and Ramey finished with 11 points and nine rebounds.</p>
<p>Edinburgh coach Amy Schilling said she found several positives to take from the loss, especially on defense and on the boards, but the early onslaught was too much to overcome.</p>
<p>"I go back to our practices," she said. "We weren’t really mentally focused there for three days, and that kind of showed here when we came out. We just weren’t mentally ready."</p>
<p>There was a ceremony before the game to recognize Ramey, Mead and Reed, all of whom have scored their 1,000th career points this season.</p>
