Lourdes jumped out to a 28-point halftime lead on Wednesday evening on the way to a 75-53 victory over Madonna inside the Russell J. Ebeid Recreation Center.
 
"The team had specific goals and they worked at keeping each other to them," head coach Tandy Bradford said afterwards.  "We are still working at locking in as a unit in some areas on defense and it's going to matter in the next few games.  As a team we cut better to the rim and rebounded more aggressively.  Now we need to be consistent with that effort."
 
The Gray Wolves scored the game's first 10 points and held the Crusaders without a field goal for more than eight minutes to start the game while building a 20-5 lead after the opening period.  Lourdes continued to pour on the pressure in the second quarter, starting the stanza on a 12-4 run to push the advantage to 32-9 before taking a 40-12 lead into the locker room.
 
Lourdes shot 50% from the floor in the opening 20 minutes while limiting Madonna to just 11.1% (3-of-27), including 0-of-21 from beyond the arc.
 
The lead continued to grow into the third as Lourdes led 60-29, heading into the final 10 minutes.  The Gray Wolves had their largest lead with just under eight minutes to play, 69-33, putting the game out of reach.  Madonna scored 11 of the game's final 12 points.
 
Mercedes Wagner (Sherwood, Ohio/Fairview H.S.) led Lourdes with 17 points, making 9-of-10 from the free throw line.  Emma Pedroza (Napoleon, Ohio/Napoleon H.S.) had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds while Macie Stringfellow (Perrysburg, Ohio/Perrysburg H.S.) tallied 10 points.  Halle Barnett (Sylvania, Ohio/Southview H.S.) pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds.
 
Lourdes shot 44.3% from the floor for the night.  The Gray Wolves held a 36-18 edge scoring in the paint and outrebounded the Crusaders 41-35.
 
Ashley Hill led Madonna (1-22, 0-17 WHAC) with 14 points while Paige Humerickhouse added 10 more.
 
Lourdes (8-17, 5-12) will close out the home portion of the 2022-2023 season on Saturday afternoon as the Gray Wolves host the University of Northwestern Ohio.  Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. inside the Ebeid Rec Center.