Girls basketball: Dixon surges past Harlem to win season opener

DIXON – The depth and athleticism of this year’s Dixon girls basketball team was on full display in the season opener Monday night at Lancaster Gym.

Setting the tone from the opening tip with their hustle and efficiency, the Duchesses used a big first-half run to build a double-digit lead and rolled to a 57-35 win over Harlem.

[ Photos from Dixon vs. Harlem girls basketball ]

The loss of five starters from last year’s squad didn’t seem to faze Dixon (1-0), as eight players scored and five had at least seven points in the victory.

“Obviously, we lost quite a few players from last season, but the thing about this team this year is we’re really deep and we’re all confident,” senior guard Katie Drew said. “There were a lot of players that contributed tonight, three girls in double figures and eight different scorers. That just shows the depth of our team, and we all came out and played really hard. It was a great start to the season.”

Leading 8-6 in the final minute of the first quarter, the Duchesses scored 13 straight points as part of a 22-3 extended run over the next eight minutes to take a 30-9 lead with 49 seconds left before halftime.

Junior post Makenzie Toms started the surge with a putback, then sophomore guard Morgan Hargrave buried a deep 3-pointer from the right wing to close the first quarter. Freshman post Ahmyrie McGowan opened the second period with a putback, then got another offensive rebound and kicked it out to sophomore Reese Dambman for a 3 and an 18-6 lead.

“We were really relying on our shooters early, and once we started moving the ball around, we opened some shots around the perimeter and hit them,” Toms said. “It was really critical in getting our game going and starting us off strong.”

Junior post Hallie Williamson hit a pair of 3s around a tip-in putback by McGowan, then Hargrave scored on another putback before sophomore Addy Lohse saved a Dixon miss from going out of bounds, hitting Toms under the hoop for a layup to put the Duchesses up by 21.

“It definitely helps with our energy and getting our momentum going when we can make hustle plays and rebound hard. It gets everyone excited to play, and helps us set the tone,” Toms said. “It was really nice getting everybody involved. In the past, we haven’t really had 10 or 11 really solid, good players, so it was really cool to see everyone get a chance to go in and contribute to the win. I think we all worked really well together as a team.”

The hustle plays and offensive rebounding were too much for the Huskies (0-1) to overcome. Dixon outrebounded Harlem 42-18, with 23 of the Duchesses’ boards coming on the offensive glass, leading to a 19-2 edge in second-chance points.

“A big key coming into today was to rebound. We knew we had to limit their second-chance points, and if we did that, they probably wouldn’t be able to score enough to beat us,” Drew said. “Everybody played really hard, and we’re really proud to get that first win of the season right away.”

Toms and Drew combined for 13 of the Duchesses’ 16 third-quarter points, and Toms scored six straight points in a span of 1:07 to push the lead to 46-23 late in the period. Toms turned her steal into a layup a few minutes later, then Hargrave hit a pull-up jumper to push the lead to 57-29 with 3:50 to play.

As always, Dixon shared the ball well, assisting on 12 of its 23 field goals. Knocking down perimeter shots early on – especially after grabbing offensive rebounds and kicking out passes from the post – helped open up the inside as the game wore on.

“Working from the paint out was big for us. A lot of the times they can beat their girls for position down low, and we can feed it into them in the post, and they’re really good at recognizing to kick it out if the defense comes down to them,” Drew said. “We had shooters around the arc, and luckily we were knocking down those shots early on so it helped us get out to that lead, and then we built on it throughout the game.”

Toms finished with 15 points, five rebounds and a blocked shot, and Drew added 10 points, four rebounds and three assists for the Duchesses. Williamson had 11 points, three rebounds and two blocks, Dambman added eight points, and Hargrave stuffed the stat sheet with seven points, five rebounds and four assists. McGowan chipped in four points, 13 rebounds – 10 on offense – and three steals in her varsity debut.

Alyssa Fulton scored all 13 Harlem points in the first half, and finished with 17 points and three rebounds. Haley Fulton scored all nine of her points after the break, and also had three rebounds and two steals. Taelor Paulsen and Paige Stovall each added three points, with Paulsen chipping in three rebounds and three blocks, and Stovall nabbing four steals.