Chelsea Girls Move atop SEC White Standings

The Chelsea girls’ basketball team avenged its only league loss of the season in a big way Tuesday night as the Bulldogs rolled to a 51-35 win over Tecumseh.

Tecumseh had handed the Bulldogs its lone SEC White loss in stunning fashion earlier in the season when the Indians rallied in the final two minutes for a 60-57 win over Chelsea.

This time it was all Bulldogs from the start however.

Leila Wells hit a pair of triples to go along with a basket for a quick eight points and Avery Lay scored four to help the Bulldogs jump out to a 12-0 lead in the first.

Tecumseh all-stater Alli Zajac picked up two quick fouls and was forced to go to the bench and sit for most of the first quarter and the Bulldogs took advantage.

With Zajac on the bench, Tecumseh hung tough with the last four points of the quarter to cut the Chelsea lead to 12-4 after one.

Wells was on fire in the first half and started the second with two more triples to push the lead to 18-4 and Zajac picked up her third foul and was forced to go back to the Tecumseh bench with six minutes left in the second.

The Indians leading scorer would be held scoreless in the first half and did not score her first points of the game until the midway points of the third quarter.

With Zajac on the bench the Bulldogs defense was able to keep the Indians off the scoreboard and built a 23-7 lead at halftime.

Tecumseh would try to make a game of it in the third with triples by Zajac and Chloe Bullinger, but Chelsea answered with a Wells triple and five points by Maggie McKale to push the lead to 22, 39-17 after three.

Ella Day scored five points to open the fourth before Tecumseh would make a late run and outscored the Bulldogs 18-12 to make the score closer than it really was.

Wells finished with a team high 20 points, including 14 in the first half when the Bulldogs pulled away.

Lay had a big night with a double-double of 16 points and 14 rebounds. She also had three blocks and three assists on the night.

Day finished with eight points and four steals, McKale five points, and Caroline Knight two.

Zajac finished with 11 points for Tecumseh, with eight that came in the fourth quarter when the game was out of reach.

The win moved the Bulldogs into a tie with Tecumseh at 7-1 in the SEC White after the Indians beat Pinckney Wednesday night. Both teams had two games remaining in conference play.

Photos by Mike Williamson