It was a winning experience of a slightly different nature on Friday, January 9, for the Evergreen Lutheran girls basketball team.

Pressure on the ball and fine shooting from guards Markelle Lance and Erica Hansen led the Eagles to a nonleague 57-46 victory at Darrington.

"It was a great effort," said Evergreen Lutheran head coach Jeff Kurbis. "Markelle and Erica had a great shooting night and we really got going after the first quarter."

Darrington took advantage of a slow start by the visitors from Des Moines to lead, 10-5, after one quarter. Lance and Hansen benefitted from the Eagle defensive pressure to clear themselves for drives and outside shots that included deadly missiles from three-point land as Evergreen Lutheran rushed away to a 24-15 lead at the half.

Despite 11-for-24 free throw shooting, the Eagles cleared away to double digit leads and maintained the distance the rest of the way.

"It was really diffferent," explained Lance, who canned a pair of three-point goals to tie teammate Hansen for game high honors with 15 points. "The backboards were fan-shaped and we had to get used to the different bounce of the ball off these backboards."

Hansen was even more deadly from three-point range with four three-pointers in her accumulated scoring.