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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

ALABASTER – The Spain Park Jaguars answered the call to fill in for a Saturday, Nov. 23 clash with the John Carroll Catholic Cavaliers at the Thompson Thanksgiving Invitational, and they got a dominant win to keep their strong start going.

Spain Park defeated John Carroll 40-20 at Thompson High School to improve to 5-2 on the season.

Tori Flournoy paced the Jags offense out of the gate by scoring five of her team’s seven first-quarter points.

Spain Park held John Carroll to just a 3-pointer on the other end of the court during the entire first quarter, leaving the Jags up 7-3 at the end of the quarter.

Her dominance continued into the second quarter as she knocked down three baskets to score seven points, and just like the first quarter, Ava Leonard scored another field as well to give Spain Park nine additional points before the break.

The Jags defense kept the Cavs in single digits by quieting the offense, and that gave Spain Park a 16-7 lead as the teams went into the locker rooms for halftime.

Flournoy didn’t score in the entire third quarter, but she had some help on the offensive side as four different Spain Park players scored in the third, including a pair of field goals from Nylah Calhoun and three points from Trinity Daniels after neither player scored in the first half.

John Carroll’s offense got going in the third quarter as well with four different scorers of their own. However, the Jags still outscored the Cavs 10-9 in the third quarter and grew the lead to 26-16 ahead of the fourth quarter.

Even with a double-digit lead, Spain Park refused to settle at that point and continued growing the advantage.

MC Hunter knocked down a pair of 3-pointer and a free throw to score seven points and Leonard added four more points to her total off a basket and a pair of made free throws.

The Jags defense also continued to lock in, allowing just four points in the fourth quarter while the Spain Park offense scored 14 points on the other end of the floor.

Those were the ingredients to increase the lead to 20 by the time the final whistle blew, capping off the dominant victory.

Flournoy led all scorers from both teams as she scored 14 points in the win. Leonard earned nine points, Hunter had seven points that all came in the fourth quarter and Calhoun scored four points.

The Jags will be off until Tuesday, Dec. 3 when they will host the Clay-Chalkville Cougars at 6 p.m. at Spain Park High School.