WHITESBORO — With a pair of key match-ups coming up on the schedule, the Whitesboro Lady Bearcats took care of business with the first step towards remaining near the top of the District 9-3A standings with a 65-28 victory against the S&S Lady Rams on Friday night.

Whitesboro (17-7, 3-1) opened the game on a 10-0 run to send S&S (10-13, 2-2) out of the three-way tie for second place. Now the Lady Bearcats are tied with just Ponder for second behind Pottsboro and Whitesboro travels to Ponder on Tuesday night with a chance to gain sole possession of the spot.

The Lady Rams got off to a frustrating start and struggled to get into any of their offensive sets and the 2-3 zone of Whitesboro caused frustration and forced S&S into two early timeouts.

“We threw a couple adjustments in where we can trap on the side,” Lady Bearcats head coach James Garner said. “It’s always good to make adjustments and we held them three points in the third quarter.”

The main point for Whitesboro offensively was to get the ball into the post early and often and allow that to open up the outside shooting.

“That’s basically what we try to do, work a lot of inside action,” Garner said. “If they don’t have anything they’ll kick it outside to the open shooters.

Phoenix West led the way for the Bearcats with 20 points and seven rebounds while Destiny Mack and Gabbie Case had 12 points apiece. Casey Monk totaled eight points, five rebounds, four blocks and three assists and Karlee Schuessler led the defensive effort with seven steals.

Taylor Jackson led S&S with nine points, making three three-pointers during the second quarter when the Lady Rams adjusted and started getting some good looks at the basket.

Kaylee Baker added eight points and Halie Hicks chipped in seven points for S&S.

Whitesboro widened its 16-point half-time lead with a red-hot start to the third quarter, outscoring the Lady Rams 14-0 as S&S went scoreless for the first six minutes of the second half.