By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

CHELSEA – After finishing undefeated in area play during the regular season, the Chelsea Hornets varsity girls basketball team didn’t change its recipe for success when it faced Pelham in the Class 6A Area 8 tournament championship game on Thursday, Feb. 7, using tough full court press defense to convert turnovers into points as the Hornets pulled away to defeat the Panthers 54-34.

Led by Pressley Rains 23 points, Chelsea was relentless on the defensive end of the floor in the second half on its way to an area tournament championship in front of its home crowd.

“We feed off of our defense and we felt like in the first half it wasn’t going at a pace that we would’ve liked it to,” first-year head coach Jason Harlow said. “So, we tried to pick it up on the defensive end which allowed us to get some runouts and in turn allows us to get into our press. We told the girls, ‘if we’re going to win in February you’re going to win on the defensive side of the ball’ and we’ve fed off that all year long.”

In the first half, Pelham came ready to play as the Panthers went on a 7-0 run after falling behind 5-0 to start the game with five points from KK Tomlinson.

Pelham kept the game close the remainder of the first half by limiting turnovers and slowing down the pace of the game as the Panthers trailed just 20-16 at halftime.

The second half was a different story, however, as Chelsea opened the third quarter with much higher intensity and a big sequence happened halfway through the third quarter with the Hornets up 27-19.

The Hornets got back-to-back 3-pointers from Sydney Schwallie and Ellen Fleming which pushed the lead to double digits as Pelham called a timeout with 3:33 to go in the third quarter trailing 33-19.

From there, Chelsea outscored Pelham 19-6 in the third quarter to take a 39-22 lead heading into the final period where they never looked back.

Of Rains’ 23 points, all but three points came from inside the arc as she converted several layups off steals and fast break opportunities.

In the second half, Chelsea outscored Pelham 34-18 as Mackenzie Titus chipped in with eight points and Fleming finished with eight points for the Hornets.

“I thought we defended and did a better job in the second half with 50-50 balls,” Harlow said. “Pressley Rains and Ellen Fleming were great at the top of the press. I though Mackenzie Titus and Suzanne Ridgeway were great on the boards and then we put ourselves in the lead and a situation where we just needed to take care of the ball and knock down free throws. It was a complete and total team effort.”

Both Chelsea and Pelham will now turn their attention to the sub-regional round of the playoffs as the Hornets will have the opportunity to host after winning the area tournament championship.