MANCHESTER — The Portsmouth West Lady Senators got defensive in their season opener — defeating Adena 44-32 at the Manchester Tipoff Classic on Saturday.

In the matchup of 2021-22 Division III sectional champs to kick-start this year’s campaign, West’s defense surrendered just nine field goals and held Adena to less than 10 points in three of the four quarters.

After trailing the Lady Warriors 9-5 through the first eight minutes, West would go on to outscore Adena 39-23 through the rest of the game.

The win gives first-year West coach Larry Howell his first as the head of the program.

“Our guards do a good job of sitting down in stance, moving their feet. And if they get by them, we’ve got that eraser back there in Maelynn (Howell),” Howell said, of West’s defensive effort. “She’s really good at anticipating, blocking shots. We were really worried about (Emma) Garrison and (Kiera) Williams, in the first quarter they got some good looks. We wanted to limit their touches the rest of the game — Emma (Sayre) and Lexi (Deaver) did a really good job of not letting them catch the ball, and when they caught the ball, they did it out of their scoring area.”

West was led on the offensive end by senior Maelynn Howell, who scored a game-high 20 points on nine field goals and a pair of free throws.

Howell scored 14 of her 20 in the second half, to go along with several blocks on the defensive end.

Senior Lexi Deaver scored eight points, and junior Kate Rollins had six on three first-half buckets.

“She (Howell) runs the floor very well. That’s how we want to play — get up the floor quick. Our guards are fast, so if we can get the ball up the floor fast, that’s what we want to do,” Howell said. “Try to get a shot early, and that gives Kate and Maelynn an opportunity for second-chance shots. They’re pretty good rebounding.”

Adena was led in scoring by Emma Garrison — a D-III all-Southeast District first-team selection last year — who had 14 points.

West traveled to South Webster on Monday (Nov. 21) for its Southern Ohio Conference Division II opening game against the Lady Jeeps.

South Webster won the season series over the Lady Senators last year with 66-45 and 60-41 victories.

“It’s going to be tough,” Howell said. “They beat us twice last year, I know they lost (Bri) Claxon. But they’re still a good program.”

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BOX SCORE

West 5 16 12 11 — 44

Adena 9 6 5 12 — 32

West scoring

Maelynn Howell 9 2-2 20, Kate Rollins 3 0-0 6, Emma Sayre 1 0-0 2, Lexi Deaver 2 3-4 8, Charlie Jo Howard 1 0-0 3, Elisha Andre 1 0-0 3, Rylee McDermott 1 0-0 2; TOTALS 19 5-6 44; Three-point field goals: 3 (Lexi Deaver, Charlie Jo Howard, Elisha Andre 1 apiece)

Adena scoring

Caelan Miner 0 0-0 0, Kiera Williams 1 1-3 4, Jacey Smith 0 0-0 0, Kamryn Sowers 0 0-0 0, Grace Townsend 0 0-0 0, Caroline Corcoran 1 0-0 3, Corinne Day 0 0-0 0, Sydney Ater 3 4-5 11, Emma Garrison 4 4-6 14, Hayley Bossert 0 0-0 0; TOTALS: 9 9-14 32; Three-point field goals: 5 (Emma Garrison 2, Kiera Williams, Caroline Corcoran and Sydney Ater 1 apiece)

Reach Jacob Smith at (740) 370-0713 ext. 1930, by email at [email protected], or on Twitter @JacobSmithPDT © 2022 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved