MORAN — Marmaton Valley High’s girls worked through some early jitters Thursday, and in so doing, dispatched Hartford High with ease.
The Wildcats limited Hartford to three points in the first half and cruised to a 45-18 victory in their season-opener.
“It’s a good start,” head coach Becky Carlson said. “Hartford’s a decent team.”
The Wildcats were downright stifling on the defensive end, clogging up passing lanes, forcing hurried shots and getting out in transition throughout the first half.
“Aside from some missed layups — I felt that was because we were nervous,” Carlson said. 
Marmaton Valley grabbed the early lead and never looked back.
Carlson deployed a zone defense for much of the contest, “something I rarely do,” she said.
The reasons were two-fold.
For starters, it gave her post defenders a bit of a breather against the Jaguars’ frontcourt players. Secondly, it allowed Marmaton Valley to overcome some foul trouble for starting point guard Janae Granere and key reserve Khianna Haynes.
Granere had the hot hand early, scoring seven of Marmaton Valley’s first nine points. Payton Scharff found her groove in the second quarter with a pair of field goals as Marmaton Valley led 17-3 at intermission.
Hartford began finding its range in the third quarter, but it was too little, too late.
Carlson said the Wildcats gained valuable experience while Granere was on the bench with four fouls. She credited Maria Forero, a foreign exchange student studying as a senior at Marmaton Valley this year, as well as the Wildcats’ post players like Scharff and Piper Barney.
“Mira does a good job of taking care of the ball,” Carlson said. “Payton’s got a good head on her, and Piper did a great job a couple of times of just taking the ball and going with it.”
Granere wound up with 18 points. Barney followed with 12, d Scharff nine and Forero scored six.
Trinity Windle and Tobye Sull scored four points each to lead the Jaguars.
Marmaton Valley (1-0) is at home next week for the Wildcat Preseason Tournament. Carlson and Co. wlll take on Northeast-Arma at 6 p.m. Tuesday and Madison at 6 p.m. Friday.
