RAPID CITY - St. Thomas More forced 15 first-half turnovers and dominated the defensive and offensive glass, routing Hill City 56-25 in a Black Hills Conference girls basketball matchup.

"I hope that that's a statement for us," St. Thomas More head coach Brandon Kandolin said about his team's defensive effort. "Every game we are learning to help each other out and communicate more and that certainly helps our offense."

The story of the first half was the Cavaliers' Taylor Dauwen, who came off the bench with a lot of intensity that created opportunities for her team. With More leading 12-3 near the end of the first quarter, Caitlin Duffy and Dauwen drained back-to-back 3-pointers to close out the quarter on a 6-0 run.

Dauwen would go on to lead the team with five steals and contribute with nine points and five rebounds.

The second quarter was more of the same as the Cavaliers defense smothered the Ranger offense and forced them into turnovers and ill-advised passes that were picked off, leading to scores on the other end.

"You have to be able to handle their pressure and if you don't you're going to turn it over and get them easy hoops," Hill City head coach Shawn Woodward said. "We struggled on offense. We ran our four to five different looks at them and each time they had an answer - hats off to them."

Hill City only had 12 field goal attempts in the first half, while More had 33, which was mainly due to pressure defense as well as rebounding by Erin Duffy and Kelsey Bekaert, not allowing the Rangers a second-shot opportunity when it presented itself.

"We were really ready to play tonight because we haven't played in a while with the Christmas break," Bekaert, who went 2-for-4 from 3-point range, said. "Our defense was good, but we know it can be even better."

Erin Duffy, who led the Cavaliers with nine rebounds, said she was pleased with the team's effort.

"Our goal at the beginning of the game was not to allow for them to score over 25 points and we held them right to that number," she said. "So we feel pretty good about that."

St. Thomas More (5-1 overall, 4-0 BHC) heads east this Friday to take on Redfield, while Hill City (2-5) plays Douglas on Saturday.