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COLBERT — The Colbert Lady Leopards opened their season with revenge in mind as they parlayed a tremendous 32-15 third quarter to beat Turner 63-46 Tuesday night in their home gym. The Colbert boys thrashed the hapless Turner boys team in the nightcap, 60-6 for the sweep.

Girls Game:

In last year’s first game of the season Turner beat Colbert and that was in coach Chris Gillespie’s mind before the game started as Turner returned all five starters.

“I think they beat us by 14 last year,” said Gillespie before the game.

The first quarter ended in a 9-9 tie and Turner took advantage of some Colbert defensive lapses and took a 22-18 lead at the half. The Lady Leopards came out to start the second half with a different attitude and a full-court press that Turner had trouble with. After Turner scored the first bucket of the half, Colbert ran off 18 straight points. By the end of the quarter, Colbert had a 50-37 lead as they outscored Turner 32-15 in the quarter.

Ginavee Mowles and Taylor Lyons led the assault in the third quarter with 13 points and Taylor Lyons scored 12 points. Mowles hit most of hers with good outside shooting and Lyons hit on some good inside shooting.

“We were kind of tight at the start of the game and it showed up in our shooting,” said Gillespie. “But we came out more relaxed in the second half and played a lot better. We wore them (Turner) down in the second half.”

Lyons led the scoring with 22 for the game. Mowles scored 16, Katherine Hair scored 12, Darian Bradford scored 10, Bailee Weger scored three and Samatha Cummins scored two to round out Colbert’s scoring.

Colbert also controlled the boards especially in the second half as they out-rebounded Turner 19-7.

“Mowles is a very good offensive rebounder as she follows the ball very well,” said Gillespie. “It was a good start as we all have high expectations for the team.”

Boys Game:

The Colbert Leopards simply overmatched the Turner Falcons by a score of 60-6 in Tony Robinson’s first game as the Colbert coach.

“They were missing a couple of players and it showed,” said Robinson.

The Leopards were led by Charles Adams with 17 points, Darius Johnson scored 13, both James Hair and Trever Cole added nine points and Payton Whitehead added four points.

“I’m enjoying coaching these guys,” said Robinson. “We didn’t get the baseball team until late as they were in the state tournament, but we have been working hard since then. I am having fun with the team. We had some good scrimmages against Durant but had a tough game at Wright City.”