TEACH’s point guard Casey Michelli’s 18 points lifted the Eastern Christian Homeschool Lady Trailblazers over the Columbia Wildcats, 46-42, Monday night at the old Washington High School gym to earn their first win of the 2019 season.

It was a team effort. The Lady Trailblazers took advantage of Columbia turnovers and turned them into fast break buckets.

In the first quarter, both teams had trouble possessing the ball. Michelli had four steals in the first frame, while Sarah Sottile grabbed a couple of rebounds and put-back scores to jump out to an 8-2 lead.

The Wildcats hit a 3-pointer and a couple of layups to tie the game at 10-10 at the end of the first quarter.

Leah Fulford scored five points in the second quarter. Sottile was sent to the free throw line quite a bit throughout the course of the game, but none more than the second quarter. She sunk three free throws in the second stanza.

TEACH faced a narrow 23-20 deficit at halftime, but came out in the third quarter with a vengeance, forcing the Wildcats into numerous turnovers. Sottile had three assists in the quarter after picking up lose balls and chucking it down court to Michelli, who went on to score 10 points in the quarter.

Leading in the fourth quarter, Michelli picked up two more transition baskets. She said the transition baskets were all because of her teammates.

“It was our defense,” Michelli said. “It feels good (to get the first win of the season). We just need to work on our layups, and stop turning the ball over.”

Fulford scored again bringing her total to 10 points for the game. Sottile knocked down a shot and a free throw in the fourth to reach double figures with 11, and Darby Walters drained a free throw late in the game to give the Lady Trailblazers a two-possession lead.

Takahia Bell added to the scoring with four points, and Tyanna Holland hit a 15-foot jumper in the third quarter to add to the scoring.

Head coach John Lampkins was relieved to have won the game, but said there are things to fix.

“To turn the ball over that many times and still win is really awesome,” Lampkins said. “We didn’t play our best tonight, but we hustled enough to get back in the game. That makes a difference sometimes. We just have to move the ball more, run our sets a little better. We’re still far off from where we want to be, but a win is a win.”