TURNER — It was a little ironic that Leavitt’s first basket was a 3-pointer, because it was their only made 3, and the Gardiner defenders seemed to have three hands in the passing lanes at all times.

The Hornets couldn’t hand the Tigers their third loss of the season. Instead, it’s now three wins in a row for Gardiner, which ran away with a 58-31 win in a KVAC girls’ basketball game Tuesday night.

Both teams turned the ball over on their respective first possessions, and the opening two minutes was a series of bad plays by both teams, until Liz Goulette drained a 3 for the Hornets (4-6).

The Tigers (6-2) then responded with a 7-0 run that kickstarted their offense and they never looked back.

Becca Fogg scored eight points for Leavitt in the first quarter, but she was the only one to score after Goulette’s 3, and Gardiner opened up a 17-11 lead after one period of play.

The Tigers continued to separate in the second, out-scoring the Hornets 13-4 in the quarter.

“I love the defensive effort,” Gardiner coach Mike Gray said. “I thought, especially first half, the rotations were good, the closeouts were good, the boxing out was good. When we play defense like that, that’s how we get the offense going. I really liked the way we worked on the defensive end.”

Fogg and Goulette each had a basket as the Hornets went into the locker room down 30-15.

“Gardiner played really well,” Leavitt coach Dave Gerrish said. “Their man-to-man was tough. I thought they out-hustled us and out-played us tonight.”

No one out-hustled Gardiner guard Lauren Chadwick on Tuesday night. The senior captain scored six of her 12 points in the second quarter, and compounded her scoring with tenacious play on the defensive end.

“(Lauren) does a little bit of everything for us. You can tell, she’s just playing really well on both ends right now,” Gray said. ” It’s not just her scoring, but she’s spreading the ball around, she’s playing good defense, and just her energy kind of sets the tone for the whole team.”

The second half didn’t start any better for the Hornets than the first half did, with Leavitt turning the ball over on its first possession.

The Gardiner offense, meanwhile, didn’t skip a beat. Leslie Stevens banked in a long jumper to make it a 38-17 lead with 4:30 left in the third, and Mikayla Bourassa hit a baseline jumper with one second left to make it a 25-point advantage.

“I thought we shot the ball pretty well,” Gray said. “We moved the ball around, got some good looks.”

The same couldn’t be said for the host Hornets, who failed to match the same production on offense.

“I think when you get down by 10 or 12 points, and you’re coming down the floor and you’re a little bit more selective on the shots you take because you’re trying to get back in the game, it’s a little bit more important,” Gerrish said. “I think that might have happened a little bit out there tonight.”

Goulette scored four points in the fourth to join Fogg in double figures for Leavitt. Fogg scored a game-high 14 points — mostly on layups when the Hornets found her open down low — while Goulette added 11.

“Every game is a progression, and I think Becca progressed today,” Gerrish said. “I think she did a good job in the post, got a little bit better down there.”

Bourassa was the Tigers’ top scorer, with 13. Chadwick matched her with six made baskets, and Stevens made a pair of 3s and finished with eight points. Gardiner had nine players score points.

wkramlich@sunjournal.com

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