Veritas Christian School senior Kristie Tiegreen, left, drives to the hoop against Northland Christian. The Eagles won, 55-22, Saturday at Eudora Community Learning Center.

Veritas Christian School senior Marteka Carlton moves closer to the basketball Saturday, Dec. 1, 2007 during the Eagles basketball game against Northland Christian at the Eudora Community Learning Center.

Veritas Christian School junior Taelyr Shelton, left, drives past Northland Christian junior Kristin Kilgas on Saturday, Dec. 1, 2007 at the Eudora Community Learning Center.

Eudora ? Northland Christian’s girls basketball team never knew what hit it Saturday evening against Veritas Christian.

Employing a full-court press, the Eagles tormented Northland from the opening tip to the halftime buzzer. With little room to dribble out of traps, the Blazers often struggled advancing the ball beyond half court. The result was a 25-point deficit at the midway point as Veritas cruised to a 55-22 rout in its season opener at the Eudora Community Learning Center.

“We knew we were going to be a quicker team this year, and we wanted to press,” Veritas head coach Kevin Shelton said. “I was really happy with that, especially in the first half. I thought our girls really pressured and anticipated well.”

The first quarter alone featured enough gaffes from the Blazers for an entire game. They managed just four shots while committing 19 turnovers. Just before halftime, Veritas pulled its press in favor of straight man-to-man defense, but Northland fared no better, turning the ball over 44 times on the night.

Veritas took advantage of those mistakes behind the play of 5-foot-9 forward Kristie Tiegreen, whose conversions at the rim were frequent. Tiegreen led all scorers with 30 points on 11-of-18 shooting before sitting out the fourth quarter.

Despite accounting for more than half of her team’s offense, Tiegreen was quick to praise her teammates.

“I don’t think I’ve seen scoring like that out of the rest of my team in a long time,” Tiegreen said. “They’re really stepping up this year.

“We were scrappy,” she continued. “I was really proud of the way that we hustled after the ball when it fell on the ground.”

Teammate Marteka Carlton wasn’t as modest about Tiegreen’s game.

“We all try to come together and play as a team more, but we count on her a lot,” Carlton said. “Without her, I don’t know what we would do.”

Veritas opened on an 11-0 run in three minutes – with nine of those points coming from Tiegreen – and led 23-2 after the first quarter. The Blazers resorted to a 2-3 zone in the second quarter in hopes of slowing down the Eagles’ offensive attack and perhaps even to limit their own turnovers. The move helped keep the game closer, particularly after halftime, although Shelton attributed his team’s diminished second-half play to something else.

“I thought we got tired coming out of halftime,” Shelton said. “I think that was us being out of shape. We were watching and not reacting real well. Overall for the game, though, I couldn’t be prouder.”

While Veritas faced little challenge in its season debut, the Eagles were by no means perfect, either. They committed 34 turnovers themselves and shot 10-for-21 from the free-throw line.

Still, it was hard for Shelton to feel too glum about a 33-point shellacking that allowed his underclassmen to see plenty of court time.

When Veritas freshmen Sara Kutait and Sarah Perala each scored in the final minute, they helped push the lead over 30 points to enact the 30-point, running-clock rule. By that time, though, nothing could save Northland.

Veritas boys 51, Northland Christian 40

A sub-par shooting performance wasn’t about to deter Veritas Christian senior Michael Kay from taking over when it mattered most Saturday night.

Kay’s strong drive to the hoop with five minutes left in the fourth quarter gave the Eagles a lead they never relinquished in a 51-40 comeback victory against Northland Christian.

Down 37-36, Kay – who finished with 19 points – went to work by abandoning his outside shot to score seven of his team’s next 12 points.

“I started getting a little bit closer shots,” Kay said. “I passed up a few 3s because I just wasn’t hitting them. I was shooting a little bit long and a little bit flat.”

Veritas spent the second half hanging around thanks to a full-court press that flustered the Blazers into 36 turnovers. Twenty-seven of those came after halftime, when the Eagles really cranked up the pressure.

Afterward, Veritas head coach Doug Bennett said this year’s bunch was the quickest group he had coached in his nine years with the Eagles.

“We executed real well and kind of found a weakness out of our opponent,” Bennett said. “We actually threw several different defenses at them. I told the guys after the game that I’m glad something started to work because I didn’t have anymore defenses to throw out there.”

Kay finished the game 8-of-20 from the field. Junior Jeremiah Johnson also scored in double figures for Veritas with 11 points, while Taylor Zook added nine.

Northland was led by Matt Slocum and Jordan Mack, who finished with 16 and 15 points, respectively.

Bennett said his team needed a victory in its first game this season to get over last year’s disappointing 5-20 record.

“A lot of these guys went through a tough season last year,” Bennett said. “It would have been easy to get down, and they didn’t. This is a real confidence-booster.”