BROOKVILLE — Amidst the patchwork schedule of the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference, the first time the Brookville Lady Raiders played Keystone on the road back on Dec. 17, it wasn’t a conference game.

Friday night at home against the Lady Panthers, Brookville flipped a frustrating one-point loss in Knox into a 64-39 blowout win in what counted as a KSAC game.

“I’d be lying if I didn’t say we didn’t talk about that loss earlier,” Lady Raiders head coach Mark Powell said. “We certainly did.”

The first loss obviously fueled some defense energy for the Lady Raiders, who improved to 8-4 overall and 4-0 in the KSAC and bad for Keystone which lost its third straight game and fell to 6-5 and 0-3.

Defensively, the season has been a strong one for the Lady Raiders, who went into Friday’s game forcing an average 26.7 opponent turnovers. They improved on that by pressuring Keystone into 29 Friday.

“We’ve made a very strong and conscious effort to to pick up the defensive pressure without having to go to all the full-court pressure,” said Lady Raiders head coach Mark Powell. “So it’s been a focus. We do it every night, and it’s paying big dividends.”

The Lady Raiders led 20-8 after one quarter and started a 14-0 run when they were up 15-8 at the 2:31 mark of the first quarter into a 29-8 led by the 5:37 mark of the second quarter. By halftime, the Lady Raiders’ lead whittled to 35-24 but they forced 16 first-half turnovers.

“They’re all bought in and you have to buy into that kind of pressure, because it isn’t easy,” Powell said. “They’ve bought into it. The kids get the credit, the level of intensity, they’re bringing on defense. It’s high. And it’s been every night and just the difference has been some nights the ball doesn’t go in the hoop and tonight it went in.”

Keystone got it to within single digits at 33-24 with under 40 seconds left before halftime, but the Lady Raiders started a 24-6 run that ended with a 57-30 advantage by the 6:24 mark of the fourth after a 16-5 third quarter. Their lead touched 28 at 60-32 after an Emma Northey free throw with 4:17 remaining.

Samantha Whitling scored 23 points and eight rebounds while Whitney Guth finished with 13 points. Eight different players scored and the Lady Raiders shot a respectable 44 percent (24-for-54) while limiting Keystone to just 34 shots (12-for-34).

“Whitney had a white-hot stock start for us there and that was that was huge, because she’s played so well all year and it was nice to see the ball go in early and often and then that allowed some other slow starts to kind of heat up as the game went on,” Powell said. “Samantha caught her stride, and we had great contributions, really, from everybody.”

Peyton McElravy and Keira McGiffin scored 12 and 11 points respectively for Keystone with McElravy adding 13 rebounds to complete a double-double.

The first time around, the Lady Raiders trailed for most of the game, rallied back and had a chance to win it late in a matchup that saw both teams turn it over 33 times. It wasn’t a well-played game for Brookville, but … it didn’t count in the KSAC standings.

“We turned it over a bunch at Keystone and that was a focus,” Powell said. “We thought if we could turn up the defensive pressure a little bit more than what we had at Keystone, then we were able to get into some rhythm and really that’s what it was. The kids were determined. This was a league game. It was a big game for these girls for a lot of reasons and I’m really proud of the effort.”

BROOKVILLE 64,

KEYSTONE 39

Score By Quarters

Keystone 8 16 5 10 — 39

Brookville 20 15 16 13 — 64

Keystone –39

Isabella Brandon 3 3-4 9, Keira McGiffin 4 2-2 11, Peyton McElravy 3 6-6 12, Lilly Shumaker 0 0-0 0. Hannah Henry 1 1-2 3, Jasey Wolfe 0 1-2 1, Monique Nugent 1 0-0 3, Mareah Heller 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 13-16 39.

Brookville –64

Kaida Yoder 2 1-2 5, Emma Northey 1 2-4 4, Samantha Whitling 8 6-8 23, Whitney Guth 6 0-0 13, Lily Plyler 2 2-2 6, Ally Wilson 2 2-6 6, Evie Smith 2 0-0 5, Laela Kammerdeiner 0 0-0 0, Julie Greeley 1 0-0 2, Leah Rafferty 0 0-0 0, Ainsley Blake 0 0-0 0. Totals: 24 13-22 64.

3-pointers: Keystone 2 (McGiffin, Nugent), Brookville 3 (Whitling, Guth, Smith).