Defending Class 6A girls state champion Little Rock Central forced 26 Marion turnovers and dominated in the second half last night at Fidelity Bank Arena to pull away for a 62-35 season-opening non-conference victory. LR Central (1-0) led 26-23 at halftime but opened up a 44-33 lead after three quarters before limiting Marion (0-1) to just one field goal and 10 turnovers in the fourth quarter to clinch victory. "Good job by our team playing hard and playing through some adversity in the first half," said LR Central coach Marlon Williams. "They had it to where we couldn't get rhythm at times in the first half, but we kept pushing, kept executing the way we're supposed to, and it worked out." The Lady Tigers got a game-high 18 points from Ky Wilson and 14 from Taylor Day Davis. Marion got nine points from Ayanna Hayes and seven from Madison Glaspie, while senior forward Joniya Lewis logged a team-high eight rebounds. "I thought our effort really lagged late tonight," said Marion coach Shunda Johnson. "Not all night, but really in the fourth quarter, I thought we struggled no matter who was in, and we have to learn from that quickly." LR Central bolted out to a 9-2 lead in the first period as Day Davis scored six points of her own, but Marion scratched back to tie the game three times in the first eight minutes as five Lady Patriots scored early, led by all six Lewis points as the hosts got even at 15 after a frame. The Lady Tigers limited Marion to just three-of-nine shooting in the second quarter, while forcing eight turnovers, and Central took that 26-23 lead to the lockers as Williams hit for five points in the second stanza. "Marion forced us to play fast and tough, and we had to raise our level up a little bit," said Williams. "Once we did that we got the results we needed, but it was a decision by our team to do that." Central turned Marion over eight more times in the third as the Lady Patriots were unable to take advantage of five offensive rebounds, as Williams hit for seven points in the third period alone to help Central lead 44-33 entering the fourth quarter. Once there, Central stifled Marion into making just one of its six field goal attempts, while the Lady Tigers propped up their offense with six offensive rebounds to keep stretching out their largest lead of the evening. "We just really wanted to create deflections on passes, shots, and all that stuff," said Williams. "I thought we were in a good position and once we got hands on balls, it tipped our way more than it had." "We missed more layups than we needed to," said Johnson. "We felt we had some opportunities to get open looks, but weren't able to convert enough of them to make it a closer game." WHAT'S NEXT? Marion hosts Cabot on Thursday, November 14 at Fidelity Bank Arena for a non-conference contest. The junior varsity game will tip at 5 p.m., followed by the varsity portion around 6 p.m.