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SPEICHERVILLE - A game that lasted little more than an hour, Manchester's girls basketball team had things under control in little more than three minutes Tuesday.
Opening Class 2A Northfield Sectional action against county rival Wabash, the seventh-ranked Squires raced out to a 9-0 lead, hit eight of their first 11 shots, dominated the boards and played an in-your-face defense that produced 12 steals and held Northfield to 10 points in the first half.
It all added up to a 51-27 win for Manchester, a 24-point victory that advanced the Squires to Friday's 6 p.m. semifinal game against host Northfield.
Northfield (13-8) advanced by beating Lewis Cass (8-13) 52-48 in Tuesday's second game.
North Miami (4-15) and Southwood (7-13) will battle in Friday's second semifinal game at 7:30 p.m.
Friday's winners will play in the championship game Saturday at 7:30 p.m., with the winner advancing to the South Adams Regional.
"We've been looking forward to this opportunity since last year," said Manchester coach Mark Underwood, whose team was 18-2 in the regular season last year and favored to win the sectional but fell to North Miami in the semifinal round. "This is what you get ready for. This is what you prepare for all 20 games. This is the real thing."
Against the Apaches Tuesday, Manchester was the real thing.
The Squires held Wabash scoreless for the first 5:01 of the game and led 13-6 after the first quarter and 24-10 at halftime.
While Manchester's offense was impressive, hitting 22 of 43 (51.2 percent) shots for the game, Underwood said defense has been his team's bread and butter.
Manchester's defense certainly starved the Apaches Tuesday, holding Wabash to 17 points through three quarters of play.
For the game, Wabash was 9 of 29 (31 percent) from the field overall and 0 of 5 from three-point range.
"We've hung our hat on defense all year long," said Underwood, whose Squires improved to 19-2 on the season. "We felt if your shots are not falling, if you play solid defense you can stay in most games. I'm proud of the defensive effort the kids gave. We got some shots to fall too, but our defense has always been there."
Giving up just 35.5 points per game, the Squires have the best defensive average among all Class 2A teams and the fourth-best average of any team in the state.
Manchester led 37-17 after three quarters of play and then juniors Audrey Siebrase and Libby Pattison each scored in the early going of the fourth quarter as the Squires pushed their lead to 41-17.
Wabash converted just one field goal attempt in the fourth quarter, going 1 of 4 from the field over the final eight minutes of the game.
A game that went by at a rapid pace, much like a football game in which teams run the ball every play and don't stop the clock with incomplete passes, Tuesday's contest was slowed in the fourth quarter by fouls.
Wabash was 8 of 13 from the free throw line in the final frame and 9 of 16 for the game. Manchester, which did little wrong in its 24-point win, was 6 of 14 from the charity stripe.
That was the only area where the Squires showed any signs of struggling.
"This is the first game all year we didn't have any mental letdowns," said Underwood, whose team outrebounded Wabash 31-12. "There's been stretches where we lost focus and we've still been able to win. Tonight we stayed focused mentally."
Junior Chelsea Traver led Wabash with nine points, while freshman Jordan Fox scored eight points and senior Heather Fox scored seven points. Senior Kristin Slee and sophomore Sarah Boone rounded out the Apache scoring with two and one, respectively.
Pattison led Manchester with 11 points and six rebounds, while fellow starter Sarah Purdy had 10 points and five steals.
Caroline Andersen came off the bench to score 10 points and pull down six rebounds. The 5-foot-8 junior forward finished the game 5 of 7 from the field.
Casey Thomas, Christa Peden and Siebrase all scored four points, while Katie Bowers scored three points, Holley Vogel and Tassy Winterrowd scored two points each and Mercedes Lockhart scored one.
Twelve players saw action for Manchester, 10 of them scored.
Friday's semifinal game with Northfield will be the third contest this year between the two teams.
Manchester beat the Norse 45-42 Dec. 3 and 58-45 Dec. 30 in the championship game of the Wabash County Tournament.
The Squires are in search of their first sectional title since 2004 and eighth in school history.
MANCHESTER 51, WABASH 27
Wabash 6 4 7 10 - 27
Manchester 13 11 13 14 - 51
Wabash FG FT R S Pts.
* J. Fox 2-10 4-6 0 1 8
* H. Fox 2-6 3-3 2 1 7
* Harness 0-3 0-2 2 0 0
* Traver 4-9 1-3 7 1 9
* Slee 1-1 0-0 0 0 2
Merriman 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Boone 0-0 1-2 1 0 1
Vaughn 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Honeycutt 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 9-29 9-16 12 3 27
Manchester FG FT R S Pts.
* Thomas 1-2 2-2 4 1 4
* Purdy 4-7 1-1 1 5 10
* Pattison 5-8 1-2 6 1 11
* Siebrase 2-5 0-2 3 3 4
* Peden 2-9 0-0 8 1 4
Eash 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Winterrowd 1-2 0-0 0 0 2
Carver 0-0 0-0 1 0 0
Vogel 1-1 0-0 0 0 2
Bowers 1-2 1-2 0 0 3
Andersen 5-7 0-3 6 1 10
Lockhart 0-0 1-2 2 0 1
Totals 22-43 6-14 31 12 51
Three-point goals - Wabash 0-5 (J. Fox 0-3, Harness 0-1, Traver 0-1), Manchester 1-5 (Purdy 1-4, Peden 0-1). Turnovers - Wabash 17, Manchester 11, Manchester 10. Fouls - Wabash 14, Manchester 13. Fouled out - Harness.
