The first time the La Salle-Peru girls basketball team played rival Ottawa, it was the Lady Cavaliers’ first game of the season after a COVID-19 quarantine.

L-P held a lead in that game, but ended up losing by a point.

The Lady Cavs switched some things up since then, including a move from man-to-man defense to a 2-3 zone.

The changed helped Saturday as a strong second half defensive effort along with the ability to attack the basket allowed L-P to avenge the earlier loss with a 47-35 victory over Ottawa in an Interstate Eight Conference game in La Salle.

“After we lost to them, we were saying, ‘Next time, we’re going to beat them,’ so it feels really good,” L-P senior Lauren Klein said. “I think we played pretty well. We played very good in the second half. We shared the ball very well. We hit our shots. We had a lot of nice drives and kicks. I think we had a lot of energy on defense.”

L-P led 25-23 at halftime, but the Lady Pirates briefly took the lead at 28-27 in the third quarter when Ella Marvel drove to the basket with 4:39 left.

That’s when the Lady Cavs kicked up their defense.

L-P held Ottawa scoreless for the final 4:39 of the third on 0-of-5 shooting while forcing three turnovers.

“This tie around we played an aggressive 2-3 zone starting at half court,” Klein said. “I think that helped.

“Our defensive pressure was really good. We were getting a lot of turnovers and also forcing them to take tough shots. We were getting a lot of rebounds, so we weren’t allowing them second-chance points.”

While L-P held Ottawa scoreless for the last half of the third quarter, Klein drove for a bucket, Taylor Martyn drained a 3-pointer and Brooklyn Ficek converted a three-point play to give the Lady Cavs a 35-28 lead after three quarter.

The Lady Pirates scored the first two buckets of the fourth to pull within 35-32 before L-P went on a 9-0 run as Lauren Phillips scored on an assist from Ficek, Klein scored a three-point play and Ficek drove for a pair of baskets.

“Coach told us to use the picks and the lane is open and take it up strong,” Klein said. “We did well with that. In the first half, we were kicking them out and they were staying out because we were hitting our shots in the first half, so we had some wide open lanes to drive.”

L-P led the majority of the final three quarters but had to play catch up in the first half after the Lady Pirates jumped to an 8-2 lead behind a pair of 3-pointers from Brooke Waddell and a bucket from Maddie Carroll.

But L-P closed the first quarter on a 9-4 run to tie the game at 13 after eight minutes.

“I thought we started the game with energy,” Ottawa coach Brent Moore said. “I didn’t think there was any question we were ready to play. Both teams were making shots early. Our defense early in the game, I think we’re a better defensive team that that. We got lost on some switches and left some shooters open. I thought we cleaned some of that stuff up at halftime. It’s just in the first half we made shots and in the second half we didn’t.”

Klein led the Lady Cavs (5-5, 5-4 I8) with 21 points, while Ficek added 13 points and three assists.

“I thought we played very well,” L-P coach Hollis Vickery said. “We shared the ball well. We drove to the basket pretty well.

“I think our (defensive) intensity and talking picked up (in the second half) and we got a few rebounds too, which we’ve really been struggling with.”

Waddell led the Lady Pirates (6-6, 4-5 I8) with 11 points, while Maddie Carroll and Zoe Harris had eight points each.