Lady Royals Improve to 6-0

Tuesday-The Jay Lady Royals overcome a slow start to get their 6th win of the year, defeating Paxton (2-4), 38-16. As has been the cornerstone of this young 2022-2023 season, defense is what this group is hanging its hat on.

Leading only 6-4 at the end of the first quarter, Jay leaned on their defense to help get them the win.

“Jaylen Routley played an outstanding game for us tonight.” (Routley lead all scorers with 11) “I thought the entire group played smothering defense all night,” head coach Jorey Diamond said after the game.

Paxton, with their full court press style defense was able to keep the Royals in check during the first half, allowing Jay to only score 13 points by halftime. However, the problem for the Bobcats was that the Lady Royals play pretty good defense as well; Paxton only had 8 points at the break.

“We overcame a slow start and had a big third quarter. Their defense was a challenge. I thought we handled it better as the game wore on,” Diamond added.

The “big third quarter” consisted of five different Lady Royals scoring, three of which hitting from behind the arc. And that Lady Royals D? Only allowed 2 Paxton points in the third.

Up next for Jay is undefeated Pace on Thursday at Jay.

Jay 6 7 17 8-38
Paxton 4 4 2 6-16

(A Nelson 6, C. Baker 6, J. Routley 11, A. Bodiford 2, P. Hawthorne 10, C. Gilbreath 3)