GRIDLEY, CA (MPG) - The Marysville Indians girls’ basketball team controlled the tone throughout the battle against the Gridley Bulldogs in a 55-28 victory on Wednesday, December 21.

Like Marysville attempts every game, they pressured Gridley defensively with the full-court press and it served dividends as they got early stops to start their fast-break attack.

Lady Indians head coach Ike Prince mentioned to Messenger Publishing Group (MPG) that the defensive pressure allowed his team to set the tone.

Marysville (10-2) took a 12-7 lead at the end of the first.

The Lady Indians were able to speed up the game on the offensive end and were led by sophomore guard Demi Boykin, who played in her first game of the season against the Lady Bulldogs.

Prince exclaimed to MPG she still needs to find her rhythm.

“She is just getting into the flow of game reps and nothing can be better than game reps,” Prince told MPG.

Boykin said that she felt great to get out on the floor and get into the flow.

She added that they were able to space the floor effectively as it led to a great game to where their passing was efficient to one another.

Marysville had a 30-15 lead at the half and Boykin had a game-high 18 points on the night.

Gridley (9-5) was able to get decent shots on the floor throughout the game, they just didn’t fall through the basket.

One of the Lady Bulldogs leaders is senior forward Ella Sannar, who is a dynamic player that can post up at any point in the paint or run the offense from the top of the key.

Sannar was able to get in her groove in the third quarter where she was able to get five of Gridley’s 10 points in the quarter.

Lady Bulldogs head coach Becca McCray expressed to MPG that Sannar is a great captain to have due to her being able to do a lot on the floor.

Gridley has a break in their schedule until they compete in the Las Plumas Tournament from January 5-7 to conclude in their preseason, and it gives the Lady Bulldogs time to rest and work on things before their first Butte View League game at Las Plumas on January 10.

“We’re gonna get a lot more conditioning and work on our offense throughout the break,” McCray told MPG.

McCray added the Lady Bulldogs defensively did a great job overall and the Lady Indians were bigger but Gridley had some great moments throughout the night.

Gridley junior guard AnaGloria Luevano expressed some of the good moments that came from throughout the night when they made changes to their offense and looked inside more to the paint.

“We started to click more and see the wide-open passes in the key when defenders were on the outside,” Luevano said to MPG.

Marysville junior forward Krystal Briggs had 14 points and a game-high 11 rebounds on the night. She currently leads the team in field goal percentage with 43% and rebounding with a 10.2 average.

The Lady Indians played the following night at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, where they won a nail biter 40-36 over Lathrop.

Marysville will play next at Yuba City on Tuesday, January 3 where they previously beat the Lady Honkers 63-28 in late November at the 25th Annual Lois Langford Tournament held at Live Oak High School.