By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

Stephen Tuck, the head coach of the LaGrange Lady Grangers, doesn’t expect a flawless offensive performance every time out.

What Tuck does ask of his players, though, is to give 100 percent on the defensive end every game, because he believes that’ll be a key to long-term success.

“I told them at the beginning of the year that’s a priority,” Tuck said. “Defense is how we’re going to win games. There are going to be some games where we’re not going to be able to hit shots, but you can always defend.”

The defensive effort was certainly there on Tuesday night, with LaGrange shutting down Whitewater on the way to a 53-31 victory.

LaGrange, which lost to Northside-Columbus in last week’s season opener, evened its record at 1-1.

Whitewater was held to single digits in all but one quarter, including the first quarter when it only scored three points.

Leading 14-3 after the first quarter, LaGrange held a fairly comfortable lead the rest of the way.

In the second half, Whitewater was unable to make a run against LaGrange’s stingy defense.

“We told the girls, we’ve got to finish,” Tuck said. “And I told my seniors, they’ve got to stay out of foul trouble, and I thought they did a good job of that.”

Three of those seniors led LaGrange in scoring.

Kamelah Kelley paced LaGrange with 15 points, Quay Robinson added 11 points, and Madison Coverson chipped in with 10 points.

Holly Lynn added eight points.

LaGrange visits Northside-Columbus on Friday.