MONMOUTH — The first quarter was all about deflation and elevation.

The Monmouth girls’ basketball team wanted to deliver a knockout blow early Saturday night and give its own game a lift at the same time.

“We’ve been trying to do that,” Monmouth senior guard Sidney Wilson said. “We have a little motto which is to kind of punch them in the mouth. Sometimes we start out kind of slow. So we want to come out with intensity.”

Monmouth’s defensive pressure proved too much for Wiscasset, and the Mustangs rolled from the start in a 50-21 win over the Wolverines.

“That’s what we wanted to do,” Monmouth coach Scott Wing said. “We wanted to come out and show some defensive intensity and set the tone right off the bat.”

Monmouth opened a 10-point lead in the first quarter and nearly doubled it by halftime. Wiscasset was plagued by 37 turnovers and shot 8-for-34 from the floor.

“It’s been our story all year,” Wiscasset coach Ben Clark said. “Our number is 15. We’ve got to be under 15 turnovers. It’s hard to compete when you turn it over like that. (Monmouth) played with a lot of defensive intensity.”

Wilson and Tia Day each had nine points for the Mustangs (7-1). Wilson also had four assists and three steals. Abbey Allen added seven points. The Mustangs had 10 different players score.

“We’ve been doing that pretty consistently,” Wing said. “If people do box score scouting, they’ll struggle with us because every night it’s somebody different. We’ve got a lot of good players and sometimes it’s hard to find them all playing time because they deserve it. They’ve been working their butts off in practice.”

Wiscasset (3-6) got 11 from Gabby Chapman and eight from Haylee Craig.

Monmouth ran off 10 straight points in the first quarter to build a quick 12-2 lead. The Mustangs were up 14-5 by the end of the first. Wiscasset turned the ball over seven times in the first four minutes and were just 1-for-3 from the floor. When the Wolverines eventually settled down, the offense still struggled. Wiscasset wasn’t getting many shots and weren’t hitting what opportunities there were.

“We wanted to get the ball inside,” Clark said. “If we had an advantage, that’s where it would be. We just struggled because they had such great ball pressure and made it really tough on us.”

Monmouth’s offense was slow to ignite, but the Mustangs scored enough to open the lead. Wilson had seven of her points in the first quarter, including a 3. Allen had five points in the quarter.

“I definitely think when you come out intense on defense, the offense just follows,” Wilson said. “That’s what we’re trying to do a lot of times. That just gets your feet moving and then things start to flow.”

Monmouth finished the first half strong. The Mustangs opened a 19-8 lead with another 10-0 run. Abby Ferland and Haley West each hit 3’s in the second quarter while the Mustangs had seven different players score.

“I think it might have had a negative impact offensively because we were trying to move so fast with so much intensity on defense,” Wing said of the swarming defensive play early. “We talked at halftime about having intensity but slowing it down mentally offensively.”

The lead was 29-10 at the half. Monmouth used a 13-0 run in the third to break the lead open for good. Day had seven points to lead the way in that quarter. The Mustangs held Wiscasset to just five points in the third and six in the fourth.

Monmouth wanted to squelch any Wiscasset upset hopes from the beginning and take care of business the rest of the way. Wing was pleased that the Mustangs did just that.

“We wanted to end it as quickly as possible,” Wing said of the fast start. “They’re not a bad team. They’re a scrappy team. They’re well-coached. They have some decent young athletes and they’re aggressive.”

It was the third loss in the last four games for the Wolverines. Clark says his club is just trying to continue improve and get to a level that Monmouth has worked hard to attain.

“Where we’re at as a program, we want to be where Monmouth is at five years from now,” Clark said. “Monmouth is a program we really look up to. They do it right here.”

kmills@sunjournal.com