Staff photo / Neel Madhavan Girard senior forward Seyhan Dede shoots a layup Wednesday night at Badger en route to a 30-point win.

VERNON — There was seemingly little Girard could do wrong Wednesday night.

Fueled by a sizzling 60 percent shooting from the field, the Indians started hot and stayed hot offensively defeating Badger 67-37.

“We got a little bit lackadaisical in the second half,” said Girard head coach Andrew Saxon. “But I thought it was a well-played game and we executed our game plan really well.”

Girard wasted no time, quickly running out to a 10-0 lead from the opening tip with a series of baskets from Allison Durkin and Sieasia Triplett.

The Indians maintained a double-digit lead for the entirety of the game from that point on.

Led by Triplett’s 21 points, three players scored in double figures for the Indians, with five scoring at least nine points. Abbie Rafferty tallied 12 points for Girard, while Allison Durkin added 10.

“We ran the floor really well — we wanted to push it up-and-down the floor to take advantage of our quickness,” Saxon said.

The Indians’ defense was perhaps more significant however.

Coming in, Badger’s Katie Grexa had averaged about 19 points per game for the Braves this season. Girard held her to almost half her scoring average, as she poured in just 10 points on 3-of-13 shooting.

“We face guarded her, double teamed her,” Saxon said. “(We wanted) to make her pass the ball and make somebody else score, which I thought we did really well.”

As a team, the Braves struggled to do much more against the Indians’ defense — shooting just 22.8 percent from the floor (13-for-57).

“They did what we do — we pressure teams,” Badger head coach Lavell Turnage said. “Not getting back on defense really killed us today. What they did today is what we’ve been doing all season — we pressure teams, do the little things, take charges, get in position — but we didn’t do that, so that’s why we lost by 30.”

The lone bright spots on the night for Badger were the shooting of Mackenzie Gross and the scoring from Julianna Miller.

Miller had a couple steals in the backcourt, which she turned into transition and fast break layups. She had 10 points, with eight of those coming on the break.

Meanwhile, Gross helped carry the Braves’ offense in the second half with her three-point shooting, as she finished with a team-high 12 points — double her season scoring average — on four made three-pointers, three of which coming in the second half.

Both teams still have one regular season game left before they turn their attention to the postseason. As a No. 9 seed in the Division IV Grand Valley sectional, Badger will face the winner of Lowellville and Mathews on Feb. 19. Girard opens the Division II Lakeside sectional as the No. 13 seed on Feb. 16 against Jefferson.

nmadhavan@tribtoday.com