GIRLS BASKETBALL | South Terrebonne surges past Springfield, 40-11

“We knew we were in a tough stretch of schools that are bigger and have really good records,” Dreher said. “We're just a team that’s starting to be able to play with the elite teams. We’re not good enough to be able to beat those type of teams yet. We’ve got a long ways to go offensively.”

“This team’s come a long way in a short period of time, and I think we can play with and beat a lot of teams that are .500 and above, but we’re going to struggle with the elite teams.”

Class 4A South Terrebonne (10-1) led 6-3 at the end of the first quarter with both teams slowing down the pace and extended its lead to 9-4.

The game changed late in the second quarter when South Terrebonne turned a flurry of Springfield turnovers into points as Chloe Fleming scored eight points primarily off transition layups, putting the Lady Gators up 18-4 at halftime.

“We focused on trying to slow them down and stop them and not give them some easy buckets,” Dreher said. “We did a great job of it when we were in our defense, but half of those points came off steals the way they got layups, and that’s just going to kill you. If we’re able to score a little bit more, then you can give up some of those, but if they’re struggling to hit jumpers in the half-court offense, our best thing (Friday) was probably getting offensive rebound putbacks.”

Fleming finished with a game-high 21 points.

Springfield’s (8-5) only point in the quarter came on a free throw by Jamiracle Joseph.

The deficit got deeper for the Lady Bulldogs, who went scoreless while South Terrebonne built a 26-4 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

“I’m happy with how we played today,” Dreher said. “Offensively against good teams like this, if we can’t get some turnovers and some things, it’s tough for us to win. We played them fairly even at times, but our turnovers led to them getting easy baskets.”

Destiny Reed’s three-point play to open the third quarter broke the scoreless streak and made the score 26-7. South Terrebonne settled into a slow-paced offense, moving the ball around, which limited the scoring.

Reed had six points to lead Springfield.

Johneisha Joseph, who had three points, hit a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 35-10 with 3:37 to play.

“We struggle to score against the upper, elite teams, and that’s not going to change overnight,” Dreher said. “It’s a process of putting in the time all year round and shooting and passing. I’m extremely happy with where we’re at. We doubled our wins already from last year. We’ve still got a lot of wins left in us, and we’re going to surprise some teams, but right now, we’re playing some upper, elite teams.”