Last week our JVA Lady RedHawks welcomed in the Romeo Bulldogs to Athens Gymnasium in another non-league game. The RedHawks came out and jumped on the visitors, taking an early 9-4 lead after 1-quarter. The Lady RedHawks defense was stellar holding down the team from Romeo. The Odger sisters did all of our ladies scoring early as Ella had 5 points and Madelyn had 4 points. The defenses picked up the intensity in the 2nd quarter as both teams struggled against the other team's pressure with the Bulldogs outscoring the RedHawks 5-4, but our ladies still held onto the lead going into the half at 13-9. Again, it was Ella and Madelyn (11 first half rebounds) who scored the only points for the ladies in the quarter and the half. Both defenses hung strong again in the 3rd quarter, but again the Bulldogs outscored the RedHawks 8-4 to tie the game heading into the 4th at 17-17. Point guard Lily Greaves scored all 4 points for our ladies in the 3rd. The start of the 4th quarter was where the Lady RedHawks turned up their defensive intensity that led to 8 steals and some easy buckets to take control of the game and outscore the visitors 11-4 to take a hard-fought victory over the Bulldogs by the score of 28-21. "We played ok, but we didn't shoot well and our offense was sluggish tonight. We still can pick up our defensive intensity and get more aggressive," said Aleen Ahmad. The RedHawks changed offenses midway through the 3rd quarter, but the results didn't happen until the 4th quarter. Freshman guard Sophia Alexander was the catalyst coming off the bench halfway through the 3rd where she created numerous scoring opportunities for other players with her smothering defense and adept passing changing the momentum towards the home team, but still the offense was stagnant. Madhu Battula added, "this was one of our better defensive games of the year, but our offense couldn't knock down the open shots. We forced to many passes tonight and didn't take our time on the offensive end." As the defensive intensity picked up in the 4th, guards Lily Greaves and Sophia Alexander combined for 6 steals and all 11 points that carried the RedHawks to the win. Lily Greaves (8 points, 3 rebounds, 4 steals & an assist), Sophia with (7 points, 2 boards, 3 steals & an assist). Ella Odgers (7 points) and her sister Madelyn (6 points, 18 rebounds, 2 blocks, an assist and a steal) led the RedHawks offense. Special shoutout to Savannah Schubeck on her outstanding defensive game as she held Romeo's best player, a 6'1'' center to just 2 points. This coming after Savannah was out for 2 weeks with an injury and this being only her 2nd game back. " I thought that we played well for missing 3 of our Bigs, we communicated well, picked it up on the defensive end and we were prepared" added Savannah. An outstanding team effort by everyone on the defensive end, especially considering that the visiting team was very deliberate on their offensive end. The win raises the RedHawks record to 7-3 on the season with 3 games this week. Tuesday at home at 5:30, Thursday @ Troy at 5:30 and Friday @ Rochester Adams at 4:00. Great effort ladies and keep working hard.