Kari Gibb/MDN South Prairie-Max sophomore Rylee Routledge (1) puts pressure defense on Dunseith freshman Alivia Gladue (2) in full court press action at the Royals homecourt on Thursday, January 30, in Division A girls basketball.

The top-ranked Lady Royals hosted the Lady Dragons on Thursday, January 30, at South Prairie-Max high school. The visitors from Dunseith made the trip with a young team full of energy that were not intimidated by the No. 1 ranking of their hosts.

In the end, three point shooting, full court press defense and rebounding aided the home team in the 78-29 win.

The visitors shot out of the tipoff and did not miss a shot, using high energy ball movement and layups to take an early lead. With 5:27 to play in the first quarter, the Lady Dragons led 11-8 and had the momentum on their side.

The Lady Royals kept their cool and began to shoot more consistently- adding pressure defense to slow the tempo by the Dunseith youth and held the 19-15 lead with 1:56 to play in the opening quarter of play.

South Prairie-Max opened the offense to end the first quarter and held the 26-15 lead to start the second quarter of play.

Both teams had five fouls in the second fairly quickly as physical play and defense became the norm.

The full court press defense applied by the Lady Royals led to several Lady Dragon turnovers and points for the home team. Three point shooting was also an area that began to click for South Prairie-Max as their lead grew.

The home team outscored the visitors 30-5 in the second quarter of play. By halftime, the hosts led 56-20 as they took and maintained the momentum into the halftime break.

The home team pushed their momentum shift through the third and fourth quarters to take the home win as they prepare for the gauntlet of games over the next week.

South Prairie-Max played well and has one more game this week with Watford City showing up on Saturday, February 1, before the No. 2 ranked team in the state makes the trip to South Prairie on Monday, February 3, in a No. 1 hosts No. 2 matchup that could be a state title preview. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. on Monday.

Carrington is 15-1 after the 55-45 win over Edgeley-Kulm-Montpelier last night. The one loss for the Lady Cardinals was early in the season to Devils Lake on a road trip prior to the break for the holidays.

Dunseith travels to Westhope-Newburg today before hosting Nedrose on Tuesday, February 4, for their next pair of games.