The girls basketball teams from Ottawa and Fieldcrest took charge early in their pool play games against Newark and Streator respectively and rolled to victories on the opening night of the Ottawa Girls Holiday Tournament on Friday night in Kingman Gymnasium.

Ottawa 52, Newark 13

The Pirates (7-4) scored the opening 12 points of the game, led 20-4 after one quarter and 48-6 at halftime against the Norsemen (0-9).

Freshman Kennedy Kane led Ottawa with 14 points, while junior Ashlynn Ganiere had 11 points, three rebounds and a pair of assists. Senior Mary Stisser added eight points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals, with sophomore Hailey Thrush (four rebounds, two assists, five steals) and junior Libby Muffler (five rebounds) each posting seven points.

Ottawa, which shot 53% from the field in the opening half, won both the rebound (33-28) and turnover (27-5) battles.

“Our biggest emphasis in tonight’s game was that we had to get back to our roots in terms of transition offense,” Ottawa coach Brent Moore said. “We wanted to get the ball and go, whether Newark put the ball in the basket or not. We wanted to push the ball every chance we had and overall, I thought we did that.

“We hoped that putting a lot of pressure on the ball would help create some of those fast-break chances and it did. That said we also wanted to make sure we finished at the other end, and we did that as well.

“We always want to be patient and solid in our half-court offense, but we also have to get a better understanding that we have the ability to be able to score in transition as well.”

Newark, which hit on just 3-of-23 shots from the field, was led by seven points, four rebounds and two steals from sophomore Jade Mitchell, while freshman Zadie Bleuer had two points, five rebounds and three steals.

“This was a tough matchup right off the bat, but that’s why we come here,” Newark coach Jasmine Mitchell said. “We are going to be out-sized and out-matched this whole tournament, but our goal is to get better in one or two aspects with each game here.

“Tonight, it was our zone defense. I know what the scoreboard says, but I felt like we improved in that area. We want to be active, and we were, now we have to keep working towards being active and also remembering that we have to box out.

“Ottawa’s man defense really gave us troubles and that is something we’ve struggled with. I’m not sure we’ll see a tougher defensive team the rest of the season than we saw tonight. We just panicked way too much offensively and they took full advantage of it.”

Both teams are back in action at the event on Saturday against Plainfield Central, with Newark playing the Wildcats at 3 p.m. and the Pirates at 7:30 p.m.

Fieldcrest 62, Streator 25

The Knights (7-6) pushed out to a 12-2 first-quarter lead before opening the second period with a 14-0 run to securely take control against the Bulldogs (1-11).

Fieldcrest freshman Leah Armes came off the bench to pour in a game-high 20 points, including hitting 6-of-6 from beyond the arc. Senior Macy Gochanour had 19 points, including four triples, five rebounds and three steals, while junior TeriLynn Timmerman had 13 points, six rebounds and three steals. Pru Mangan chipped in four points and 10 rebounds.

The Knights finished 23-of-58 (40%) from the floor and won both the rebounding (41-34) and turnover (22-15) margins.

Streator, which hit just 11-of-52 (21%) of its shots, was led by 13 points and five steals from senior Ava Gwaltney, and eight points and 10 rebounds from sophomore Alexis Thomas.

“This is a great tournament for us to have a chance to compete in, it gives us a chance to play some pretty good teams that we probably won’t see the rest of the season,” Fieldcrest coach Jacob Durdan said. “This is a new gym for us to play in, and we struggled early on finding the range. In the second quarter, we were able to see a couple shots go in and when that happens, the confidence goes up. I feel like we have pretty good shooters top to bottom, and I think you saw we shoot the ball better as the game went along.

“This game the biggest goals were to win every loose ball and take care of things on the boards. I thought we did that well, and really overall, played a pretty solid game on the defensive end.”

Both sides will play Metamora on Saturday, Fieldcrest at 9 a.m. and Streator at 12 p.m.