After nearly a week off from basketball, area teams finally got to take the floor for game action on Thursday.

East Davidson’s girls were slow in getting back into game form allowing the Lexington Yellow Jackets to hang around for a half, but a smothering run to open the second half helped them cruise to a 75-51 win in Central Carolina Conference play.

The Lady Golden Eagles maintained the second spot in the standings at 5-1, with an overall record of 16-3. Lexington dipped to 1-5 in the CCC, 4-14 on the year.

“I think there was probably a little bit of rust,” said EDHS coach Brian Eddinger. “I was glad the girls got enough of it off by the second half.”

East held an 8-4 lead with 3:14 left in the first quarter, but the shots they normally hit were not falling. This allowed the Yellow Jackets to work the ball inside to Jasmine Carter and Domonique Murphy, who both had a height advantage over East. Lexington scored nine of the final 11 points to build a 15-10 lead after one.

East used two 6-0 runs to snatch the lead back at 22-20, and took the lead for good at 24-22 when Taylor Alexander scored in the paint.

The Yellow Jackets continued to benefit from the uncharacteristic shooting by the Golden Eagles, trailing by only six at intermission.

“Lexington came out with a lot of intensity and really played hard,” Eddinger said.

Haley Grimsley poured in 26 points in the game, but her shot from the outside was off target. She failed to make a 3 in the opening half, but got out in transition for 11 points. Second half was a completely different story for the sharpshooter and the Golden Eagles.

Grimsley found the range she had been looking for drilling a pair of 3-pointers that aided a dominating, 18-0 run in three minutes by East. Lexington could not maneuver its way through an active East defense and turned the ball over repeatedly. Candace Fox had countless steals in the game that set herself and teammates up with easy layups.

“I don’t know how many turnovers or steals happened during that time, but I think they came out with a little more fire underneath them,” Eddinger said of his team. “Second half was a pretty game to watch.”

Lexington scored three straight times to trail 51-33, but buckets by Chelsea Turner and Fox, then a 3 and deuce by Grimsley opened up a 60-35 advantage that was never in jeopardy.

Fox ended up with 11 points for East with Carter scoring 22 and Murphy 11.

Sports Editor Zach Kepley can be reached at 888-3631, or at kepley@tvilletimes.com.