Oly girls drop the ball against Bremerton

If the Lady Knights were feeling rusty at all, they didn’t let Olympic know it. Or anyone else for that matter.

Bremerton, playing its first game in more than two weeks, jumped on the Lady Trojans from start to finish, using strong pressure and strong post play to drop Oly, 76-35 Wednesday at Olympic.

“That was fun,” Bremerton coach Dan McInnis said. “We wanted to play with some intensity. It’s been a couple weeks since we’ve played. We had a good flow. It’s nice to get people in the flow. Especially after the two-week break. That was one of the things we wanted to focus on.”

Bremerton (7-2, 2-1) found that flow early, starting the game on a 16-0 run. They would finish the first quarter up 16-2. The Lady Trojans (1-8, 0-3) tried to get back in it in the second, but simply couldn’t slow down the running Lady Knights. Bremerton, led by the great first-half play of Jennifer Jacobs, Alishia Lindsay and Kayla Bennett, rode on to a comfortable 40-12 halftime lead.

Olympic coach Jerry Hurd, calling the Lady Knights the “toughest team we’ve played all year,” said Olympic’s slow start, coupled with the Lady Knights’ balanced offensive attack put them in too large a hole to climb out of.

“It’s the same pattern,” Hurd said. “We’re on our heels out of the gate. That was it. We knew after the first three possessions that they were double-teaming on the first pass.”

While Oly’s offense warmed up in the second half, Bremerton stayed warmer, and after a close 17-14 third quarter in favor of the Lady Knights, Bremerton poured the pressure on in the fourth en route to a 19-9 fourth quarter.

Hurd said he wishes he could pinpoint why Oly tends to come out stronger in the second half.

“If I knew, I’d get that baby in a bottle and make them drink it before warmups,” Hurd said. “We’re going to fix that.”

McInnis said Bremerton wants to continue to score, especially with games against South Kitsap, Port Angeles and Gig Harbor coming up.

“We want to continue scoring lots of points,” McInnis said. “There were a couple of games in the first half where we were on the lower end. So we want to keep running and be able to execute.”

The win was the second-largest margin of victory for the Lady Knights this season. Bennett finished a team-high 18, while Lindsay scored 14 and Jacobs and Ebonee Batiste finished with 13 each.

Shannon White led all Olympic scorers with 11, and Shirley Diaz added 8 from the bench, including 6 in the second quarter that helped Oly gain what momentum it could.

“(Shirley) gave us some good minutes inside,” Hurd said. “We needed that. It is tough for us to match up inside. We’re short

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