The Lady Houn's installed a new zone press and executed it close to perfection to earn a key rivalry and Big 8 conference win over visiting Mt. Vernon, 51-36.

Aurora forced 23 Mt. Vernon turnovers on the night, 11 in the first half and 12 more in the second half, and scored 35 points off those turnovers. That would prove plenty to defeat the Lady Mt'neers.

"We worked hard this last week on more of a zone press instead of our regular man press," said Aurora head basketball coach Kevin Besch after the win. "I was pleased with the way they stuck with it the whole game and let it work."

Mt. Vernon head coach Dusty Killingsworth saw the same thing from the other bench.

"They ran their press extremely well," he said. "We did, however, have a number of trips down the floor where we never even got a look at the basket. Nothing against their effort, but we didn't execute our press breaker either."

Laynie Dake scored the first four points of the game for the Lady Mt'neers, but that would be the only lead Mt. Vernon would see. Aurora freshman Emily Parker answered with eight of Aurora's 12 first quarter points. She finished the night with a game-high 16 points on the night. Aurora led 12-11 at the end of the first quarter.

Mt. Vernon opened the second quarter with three consecutive turnovers and Aurora turned them into points, building a seven point lead by the break, 27-20.

Another tell-tale stat of the first half showed success at the free-throw line for the Lady Houn's, as they made six more free-throws in the first half (15) than Mt. Vernon shot (9).

The Lady Mt'neers turned the ball over five straight times down the floor to open the second half, but Aurora only managed to score two points from those errors. However, by outscoring Mt. Vernon 13-9 in the quarter, the Lady Houn's lead grew to 11 by the third quarter buzzer, 40-29.

"I don't fault of effort at all," said Killingsworth. "Even when the game got out of reach we kept battling."

Aurora put the game away early in the fourth quarter, as they opened the quarter on a 7-0, keeping Mt. Vernon off the scoreboard through the first five minutes of the fourth. The final score favored the Lady Houn's 51-36.

"That was closer to a complete game effort for us," said Besch. "They have success when they play that way."

Aurora was led by Parker's 16, followed by 13 for Shania Siegrist and 10 for Baylee Hilton.
Laynie Dake led the Lady Mt'neers with 12, followed by 8 for Tawnie Wilson.