PORTLAND — The name of the game for the Leavitt Hornets is pressure. All out pressure. Whether it’s half court or fullcourt, the Hornets bring boundless, in-your-face energy.

That pressure proved to be too much for the No. 3 Lake Region Lakers as the Hornets stepped on the throttle and didn’t let up until midway through the fourth quarter and cruised to a 62-35 Western Class B girls’ semifinal basketball win.

The victory sends Leavitt to its first Western Class B final against the defending state champion York Wildcats who’ll bring a 42-game winning streak into the Saturday afternoon contest.

The Lakers (17-3) scored an easy basket on their first trip up the court when Sydney Hancock converted an offensive rebound to tie the score at 2-2. Nothing else came easy for them over the next 10 minutes. When Kelsey Winslow put back an offensive board early the second quarter for their next hoop, the Lakers were trailing 17-4.

In between those two scores, the Lakers struggled to just get the ball to half court. When they did cross into the offensive zone, they were forced to start their offense uncomfortably high away from the basket.

“We press all year,” said senior guard Courtney Anderson. “That’s our thing. We’ve got to bring the press every game in order to win.”

Courtney Anderson converted one of her steals into an easy layup to put the Hornets (20-0) up 8-2. Later in the quarter it was Adrianna Newton converting an Abbey Randall theft into a 13-2 advantage.

The Hornets didn’t even need a made basket to create turnovers. Twice in the first quarter a Laker player apparently secured a rebound on the defensive end only to see the ball taken away by the quick hands of the Hornets.

“This group’s been together since the third grade,” said Leavitt coach Tammy Anderson. “We work on the press. The kids just feel real comfortable with it.”

The second quarter was more of the same. After Courtney Anderson played ball hawk to one Laker guard, she found Newton racing down the court for an uncontested lay-in. Newton led all scorers with 18 points. If Newton wasn’t the recipient of a pass off a steal, she was taking the ball away herself and laying it in.

“We wanted to catch the ball closer to the foul line,” said Lake Region coach Paul True. “We were running up too close to catch it and we tried to throw the ball over the top of the press. That’s not what we wanted to do with people running at you.”

Leavitt increased its lead to 27-7 midway through the second quarter when Courtney Anderson and Newton replicated their steal, pass and layup connection. Guard Abbey Randall helped close out the 35-13 halftime lead by scoring six of the final eight Leavitt points before the break.

While the Hornets pressure defense was effective, they didn’t have the best day shooting from outside. Sophomore guard Kristen Anderson hit two of her five shots from the 3-point line while Courtney missed all four of her attempts.

“No one shoots well here the first time,” said Courtney. “Hopefully we’ll shoot better Saturday.”

Courtney Anderson finished with 17 points while Kristen added 10.

The onslaught continued in the third quarter as a Kristen Anderson trey from the side and a wing jumper by Randall preceded a Courtney Anderson one-hander in the lane. The Hornets closed the third quarter on a 9-0 run which was capped by a pair of Kristen Anderson feeds to her older sister including one on a no-look pass.

The Lakers were led by freshman center Tiana-Jo Carter who scored nine points to go along with her 12 rebounds. Sydney Hancock added seven points.

“This is huge for us,” said coach Anderson of her team’s first win at the Cumberland County Civic Center. “Coming into today the girls had a mental block.”

After losing at Cumberland County Civic Center last year, the Hornets didn’t use the same routines this time around.

“We did everything different, said coach Anderson. “If one player sat over here in the locker room last year, she sat over on the other side today.”

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