Staff photo / Brian Yauger Maplewood’s Aliah Brumit drives to the hoop past Badger junior Emily O’Brien during the second half of Thursday’s game.

MECCA — During Maplewood coach Stephanie Pykare’s tenure, the Rockets have made it a point of pride to play aggressively and to pressure teams defensively.

Maplewood’s defense was smothering on Thursday as they cruised to a 59-20 victory over Badger.

“We’ve been after a level of energy this season that we’ve been striving for,” Pykare said. “We’ve had moments of it, but we’ve not had the consistency that we’ve had tonight. It’s super fun to watch them go out there and just enjoy the game.”

The Rockets came out of the gate red-hot, opening with a 15-0 run to start the game. Badger’s first bucket was immediately undercut by a Maplewood 3-pointer on the other end. The Rockets were in complete control from the opening tip. After a 61-46 loss to Crestview earlier this month, Maplewood has made strong starts a priority.

“We’ve seen in a couple other big games, Crestview especially, where that first quarter, the tone was set, and we were forced to play the pace of the other team,” Pykare said. “We’ve talked a lot about making sure that we own that for ourselves. We dictate it, and we have the ability to do it. So they did a great job tonight.”

Morgan Himes led the Rockets with 24 points. Lauran Krieg scored 14, and Aliah Brumit tacked on 10.

Next week, Maplewood will be crossing state lines to play at the Hoosiers Gym in a game against Grand Valley.

While the game comes first, Pykare is excited for what is going to be a memorable experience and a great chance to build team chemistry.

“As coaches, when we talked in the offseason, I had dreamt like, ‘What do we want to do that’s going to be memorable?’ I know other schools in the area have done it, so last March, we started the process of planning for it, fundraising for it,” Pykare said. “Grand Valley is a respectable program, they have a really good team, and we’ve just been enjoying the process of planning a trip for them. It’s basketball first, but just to be able to have that for the team chemistry and all the things that come along with a trip like that is special.”

The Rockets moved to 4-1 on the year.

Badger fell to 4-2. The Braves knew Maplewood was going to be a tough team to topple, and now, they know what they need to do to improve going forward. It’s early in the season, and there’s a rematch on the horizon. Badger coach Patrick Carney wants his girls ready for the end of January when the teams meet again.

“Our biggest thing is just being able to handle pressure,” Carney said. “We haven’t consistently been able to handle it, and obviously, Maplewood brings a whole different level of pressure than what we’ve seen so far. You just have to work with the guards on decision-making and being able to be in the right spots, and you just hope that each day you get better, and by the end of the season, we’re a better team than we are now.”