NATCHEZ &8212; The Lady Rebels of Adams County Christian School got their second consecutive victory to open District 3-AA play, beating up on Copiah Academy 51-19 Friday night in Natchez.

ACCS (13-2, 2-0) used strong inside play and a suffocating press defense in racing out to a 25-6 halftime lead.

&8220;I&8217;m real pleased with the effort tonight,&8221; ACCS coach John Gray said. &8220;We got our turnovers down and played well on the defensive end.&8221;

Senior Mattie Geoghan scored nine of her 13 points in the first quarter as the Lady Rebels established control of the paint.

Junior Ariana DeLaSalle, who led all scorers with 14, scored eight of the team&8217;s 13 in the second. Gray was pleased with his one-two punch inside.

&8220;They are doing a great job of stepping up and setting an example for the other players,&8221; he said.

Senior guard Brittany Gamberi established the tone on defense, coming up with two early steals and helping the Lady Colonels commit 13 first-half turnovers.

She finished with seven points, two rebounds and three steals.

Through three quarters of play, Copiah (6-11, 0-2) had just 10 points on the board, all were courtesy of Emily Fahner and Julie Hawkins. Fahner led the team with seven and Hawkins had four. Each player pulled down four rebounds for the over-matched Lady Colonels.

&8220;That was a very good team playing a team that&8217;s not very good,&8221; Copiah coach Mitch Mitchell said. &8220;It went about the way I expected it to.&8221;

He couldn&8217;t have expected his team to only put up only two points in the first quarter, though, a feat Mitchell credited to defensive pressure.

&8220;We hustled really well tonight and played good defense,&8221; Gamberi said.

Gray was happy to see his team play together, but warned they&8217;d have to get a lot better if they want to achieve their goals of winning district and getting deep into the state tournament later this winter.

&8220;They play well together as a team, but in order to get better, I think they&8217;re starting to realize that they have to work hard individually, too,&8221; he said.