BERLIN — They say that two heads, let alone nine, are better than one.

Simply put, the Portsmouth Lady Trojans turned Monday’s matchup against the Shaker Heights Laurel Lady Gators into a numbers advantage — making their girls basketball Classic In The Country contest into ultimately a nine-versus-one outstanding showcase.

Going against one of the top players in the entire country in the Lady Gators’ Saniyah Hall, Portsmouth put together top performances from several individuals, which produced an excellent 46-38 Lady Trojan team win, and one which raised Portsmouth’s record to a stellar 12-2.

The annual event always takes place at Hiland High School — inside the sparkling Perry Reese Center.

A day earlier, against Division I Mason, which is the largest girls program per enrollment in the entire state, the Lady Trojans fell 46-28.

On Monday, Portsmouth played altogether quite well —and was on the right side this time of 46 points.

Portsmouth put together a second-stanza and fourth-quarter combined outscoring of Laurel 27-16, as the Lady Trojans took their largest lead at 35-23.

They also held leads of 14-9 at the first stop, at 22-19 at halftime, and finally 35-26 at the end of the third frame.

There were only two ties and one single lead change, but the Lady Trojans turned a 13-1 run into a runaway margin — allowing them to keep distance between the Lady Gators and the standout sophomore Hall.

Hall has several major Division I collegiate looks, but Portsmouth shut her down to 16 points on Monday —on 4-of-19 shooting with two twos and two threes.

In fact, Hall hit just two of her 13 shots from inside the three-point arc.

She eventually fouled out and grabbed 13 rebounds, but the Lady Trojans twist-tied the Lady Gators into an ice-cold 21-percent (13-of-62) shooting for the entire game.

Hall was 2-of-6 from long distance, part of a team 5-of-27 —or otherwise 18-and-a-half percent.

Meanwhile, Portsmouth’s 1-2 scoring punch of sophomore Sienna Allen and junior Daysha Reid combined for 40 of the Lady Trojans’ 46 points —as Allen amassed 21 and Reid 19.

Both made seven total field goals, as Allen attempted 19 shots and Reid 13 —with Allen nailing four three-pointers, and Reid knocking in the Lady Trojans’ other two.

The other six points belonged to freshman Keke Woods —on a basket and 4-of-8 free throws.

Allen also secured nine rebounds, while six-foot and three-inch junior Savannah Cantrell collared six.

While the Lady Trojans did get outscored by a dozen (16-4) on second-chance points, and shot just 35-percent (15-of-43) overall and 33-percent (6-of-18) from deep, it was indeed about their defensive effort —and making the shots when they needed them.

In other words, per sixth-year PHS head coach Amy Hughes, it was a total team effort.

“Big win over Laurel today,” raved Hughes. “Savannah (Cantrell) played her best game ever. Keke (Woods) and Hayven (Carter), two freshmen, played great defense on the third-ranked sophomore (Hall) in all of America, not just Ohio. KK Mays was huge off the bench and might have saved the game with her tough and smart defense in the first half. And Sienna and Daysha shot the lights out.”

The Lady Trojans return home, and return to Ohio Valley Conference action, on Thursday night against Gallia Academy.

This begins the second half of OVC play, as 8-0 Portsmouth holds a one-game league lead over Fairland —having defeated the Lady Dragons 55-51 in an epic affair on Jan. 8.

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