Watauga’s girls’ basketball team turned to its top two scorers to bury St. Stephens.

Hannah Margolis scored 23 points and Savanna Wood added 18 to lead the Pioneers to a 66-37 win over St. Stephens at Lentz-Eggers Gym Tuesday.

The Pioneers raced out to a 20-6 lead in the first quarter by closing out the quarter with a 11-0 run. Wood scored four of the points, while Clare Harris drained a 3-point shot. Margolis capped the run with two foul shots with 17.2 seconds left to give Watauga a 14-point lead.

Pioneers coach Klay Anderson liked how the Pioneers were able to score 20 points in a quarter. They added 17 in the second quarter and 18 in the fourth.

“It was a close first quarter and all of a sudden we exploded for 11 points right there in the end and scored 20 in the quarter,” Anderson said. “If you can score 20 points in girls’ basketball in each quarter, you’re going to win a lot of games. We put our foot down a little bit and they couldn’t recover.”

St. Stephens tried to rally by closing Watauga’s lead to 26-16 in the second quarter, but Watauga closed out the half with a 9-2 run to claim a 37-18 halftime lead. Virginia McMahan led the Indians in scoring with 11 points, but needed to make 7-of-9 shots from the foul line to score double figures.

“We knew what they were going to try to do,” Anderson said. “McMahan is a talented player and we were trying to keep the ball out of her hands. It was why we were playing a lot of zone, which is what we’ve been doing all year. We felt like if we could limit them to one shot, we could eventually wear them down.”

Watauga also got seven points from Harris, who made one of Watauga’s six 3-point baskets. Wood and Margolis each made two 3-pointers.

Kaelin McNeill scored six points for the Pioneers. Autumn Williams scored seven points and Keyona Hicks scored six.

 

Watauga girls 66, St. Stephens 37

St. Stephens

Kerley 0 0-4 0, Killian 1 0-0 3, Williams 3 1-2 7, Blalock 0 1-2 1, Thornburg 1 1-2 3, Hicks 2 2-2 6, Caldwell 1 0-0 3, Menard 1 0-0 3, McMahan 2 7-9 11, Jones 0 0-0 0, Brittain 0 0-0 0. Totals 11 12-21 37.

Watauga

Wood 7 2-2 18, Westphal 2 0-0 5, Margolis 8 5-6 23, Harris 3 0-0 7, McNeill 3 0-0 6, Loflin 1 1-2 3, Welsh 2 0-0 4, Derrick 0 0-0 0, Wallace 0 0-0 0. Totals 26 8-10 66.

St. Stephens    6 12 7 12 — 37

Watauga          20 17 11 18 — 66

3-point goals—St. Stephens 3 (Killian, Caldwell, Menard), Watauga 6 (Wood 2, Margolis 2, Wesphal, Harris). Total fouls—St. Stephens 11, Watauga 17. Fouled out—None. Technical fouls—None.