DON McDERMOTT / PVT Kristi Daffer, left, of Pahrump Valley, and Emily Koch of Faith Lutheran, wait for the basketball to come down, in the Lady Trojans' 43-34 Southern Nevada Class 3-A League victory Tuesday, in Las Vegas. Brittany Orr, 10, and Sabby Yeghizarian, 23, move in on the play. Advertisement

LAS VEGAS -- The Pahrump Valley girls finished the first half of the Southern Nevada Class 3-A League basketball campaign unbeaten in four games, with a 43-34 conquest of homestanding Faith Lutheran Tuesday.

The second half begins in the PVHS gym Tuesday, when Virgin Valley travels from Mesquite to take on the Lady Trojans, 4-0 in the league, 22-3 in all games, at 6 p.m. PVHS defeated Virgin Valley 47-39 at Mesquite earlier this month.

The game against Faith Lutheran was anything but easy, as the defensive aggressiveness of both teams dominated the action. The Trojans had only 13 turnovers and they won the battle of the boards quite handily, 31-15, with Kristi Daffer (eight) and Megan Meads (seven) claiming 15.

The Trojans, however, were only 12-for-44 from the field. Faith Lutheran had 15 misplays and were only 14-for-46 on field goal attempts.

Faith Lutheran, however, got itself in trouble by committing 18 fouls, which gave the Trojans 26 opportunities from the free throw line. Coach Bob Hopkins' team capitalized, hitting 16, including 11 of 20 in the fourth quarter.

Faith Lutheran led 26-24 after three quarters as the Crusaders took advantage of the absence of Dominique Maloy, the Trojans' senior point guard who went to the bench with four fouls in the third period. Faith outpointed the Trojans 12-5 in the third quarter to overcome a 19-14 halftime deficit.

The Trojans moved ahead to stay on Brittney Lindgren's 3-pointer with 7:30 left in the game. The Crusaders tied it at 28 on Meghann Smith's field goal at 6:10, but a Brittany Orr 3-pointer pushed PVHS into a 31-28 advantage at 5:56. The Trojans steadily added to its margin, with Ashley Humbert's free throw at 0:47.3 making it 43-32.

Orr finished with 12 points, while Maloy had eight and Lindgren 10. Combined, they were 11-for-17 from the foul line. Smith had 11 points for the Crusaders, who are coached by newcomer Jennifer Karner.