EDWARDSBURG — Edwardsburg came out ready to play as the Eddies dominated the first half of play in Friday nights girl’s varsity basketball Lakeland Conference opener against visiting Buchanan.

The Eddies took the win convincingly from the Lady Bucks 71-39.

The Eddies had all nine players score in the contest with four hitting double figures. Leading the way was Rachel Vite with 14, Emily Kozinski and Brooke Portwood contributed to the win with 13 apiece and Sarah D’Amico added 12.

“It was exciting to get everyone scoring tonight and that shows the unselfish play of our team,” Edwardsburg coach Nicole Cartwright said of her team’s showing.

Edwardsburg opened up a 20-5 first quarter advantage and never looked back running the score up to 35-7 at the break.

“We were not ready for that speed,” Buchanan coach David Cleveland said to his team slow start. “Even though we talked about that they were going to outlet and they were going to go it took a little bit of an adjustment. They really didn’t realize how quick they were going to get the ball up the floor. We made a few adjustments for the second quarter but it was a lot of second chance put backs. We weren’t bodying them enough and when teams are bigger then you are you have to put a body on them and hold them there.”

Buchanan settled into the game in the third quarter dropping in 19 points in the quarter but was unable to make up any ground on the host team as they dropped in another 20 points in the quarter. Cartwright credits the team’s early success to the hard work the girls put in during the off season. “Team chemistry, they are a year older with more experience, more confident and maturity. A lot of things are coming together for us right now,” she said.

Erin Glavin led the Bucks with 14 and Chelsea Adolph, who also tallied 14 in the first loss for Buchanan.

Edwardsburg outscored Buchanan 16-13 in the final eight minutes to improve their record to 2-0 and 1-0 in league play, while Buchanan moves to 1-1, 0-1 (LAC).

“We played a little more relaxed in the second half and at that point we didn’t have anything to lose and we started to jell a little bit on offense and feeling a little bit comfortable with each other,” Cleveland said.

BUCHANAN 39

Morgan French 0 1-3 1, Ashlyn Pastryk 0 0-0 0, Pachia Benson 2 3-4 7, Chelsea Adolph 4 3-4 12, Erin Glavin 4 4-6 14, Briana Turnock 0 0-0 0, Courtney Adolph 1 0-0 2, Dalis Benson 0 0-3 0, Ashley Simpson 0 3-6 3. Totals 11 14-23 39

EDWARDSBURG 71

Rachel Vite 6 2-5 14, Jill Blough 0 2-2 2, Emily Kozinski 5 2-2 13, Hannah Hack 0 2-2 2, Sarah D’Amico 4 3-4 12, Ashley Streb 4 0-0 8, Branda Fleischauer 1 0-0 2, Mariah Murphy 1 3-4 5, Brooke Portwood 5 3-5 13. Totals 26 17-24 71

Buchanan 5 7 26 39

Edwardsburg 20 35 55 71

3-point baskets: Buchanan 3 (Glavin 2, Chelsea Adolph) Edwardsburg 2 (Kozinski, D’Amico). Team fouls: Buchanan 18 (Chelsea Adolf, Benson) Edwardsburg 16. Fouled out: Chelsea Adolf (BU). Varsity records: Buchanan 1-1, 0-1 Lakeland; Edwardsburg 2-0, 1-0 Lakeland.

Junior Varsity score: Buchanan 17 (Alia Dobrzykowski 5) Edwardsburg 29 (Alexis Blake 16)