The Keith High School Lady Bears used smothering defense and an effective offense to cruise past Maplesville for a 60-24 win and advance to the region finals.

The Lady Bears came out hot behind Harriet Winchester, who had 16 points, and Jessica Dukes, who had 10 points.

Nine different players found the basket for the Lady Bears through the course of the game. However, it was the defense that head coach Cecil Williams said stole the show.

Throughout the week, Williams said they had worked on becoming more aggressive.

“We’ve been working on defense for the past few weeks,” he said. “Also, we’ve been working on getting in better shape.”

There was no doubt about the Lady Bears’ conditioning as they stormed out to an 18-4 lead by the end of the first quarter.

Though Maplesville mounted a small run near the end of the half, the Lady Bears continued to pile on points to build a 30-12 lead at the break.

The second half was more of the same from the Keith defense. Maplesville did not notch its first basket of the second half until the 4:35 mark in the third quarter. By then, the Lady Bears had continued to nail shots from all over the floor and built a 41-16 lead heading into the fourth.