By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

PELHAM–The Helena Lady Huskies completed their regular season sweep of the Pelham Lady Panthers on Tuesday, Dec. 1 by defeating Pelham 65-52 at Pelham High School.

Helena was led by Jennifer Brown’s 19 points as well as some sharp shooting from the outside from Mary Laatsch, who finished with four three-pointers and 16 total points on the night.

Helena outscored the Lady Panthers 19-12 in the first quarter but Pelham would fight back with a run late in the first half to tie the game 28-28 going into halftime.

Pelham was led by Jordan Allison who finished with 17 points and Jamila Wilson who finished with 14 points.

Helena head coach Alan Skinner sent his team a message at halftime that these were two different teams than those that played a few weeks ago.

“We came into halftime and I was trying to convey to them that just like we’ve gotten better in the last few games so have they,” said Skinner. “We had to keep the pressure on them and we had to do things the way we do them and run good sets like we have the last few games. They did a much better job that quarter and responded.”

The Lady Huskies heard the message and went on to outscore Pelham 23-10 in the third quarter.

Helena forced Pelham into multiple turnovers and scored some easy baskets in transition to cruise to a 65-52 victory and improve their record to 6-2 on the year.

Skinner said that over the past few games, the girls have grasped more and more the style of play Skinner wants to try and play.

“When we played them in Helena that was the turning point,” said Skinner. “My style and my system is that we’re going to guard you and we want to force turnovers. We want them to have one shot on offense and then we get the ball out in transition.”