[11/11/03]Central Hinds gave Porters Chapel Academy a rude welcome home gift Monday night.

Central Hinds took advantage of 20 first-half turnovers by the Lady Eagles to build a 30-point halftime lead, then cruised to an easy 63-34 win in PCA’s home opener.

“We were pretty predictable,” PCA coach Kevin Griffin said. “We weren’t getting into our reads off of our Princeton stuff. We were inour basic offense, and that’s not the way it can be run.”

Rachel Newton led Central Hinds (3-4) with 15 points and six steals, Adrienne Deviney added 12 points and 10 rebounds, and Jamie Davis had 15 points. Annie Beaugh had 19 points for PCA (4-2), and Allison Horn added 11.

Beaugh scored on a layup to give PCA an early 2-0 lead, but it was all Central Hinds from there. The Lady Cougars answered with a 9-0 spurt, then outscored PCA 19-2 in the second quarter to take a 38-8 lead into halftime.

Of PCA’s 20 turnovers in the first half, most were the result of bad passes. Central Hinds had nine steals in the first two quarters, and shot 53.3 percent thanks to the large number of easy transition baskets.

“We just were trying to anticipate getting into the passing lanes with the offside girl for help if they tried a backdoor pass or anything like that,” Central Hinds coach Chris Perritt said.

PCA played better in the second half and outscored Central Hinds 26-25, but never came close to putting a dent in the deficit.

Beaugh hit a 3-pointer and a layup to spark a 7-0 run that cut it to 42-19 midway through the third quarter, but Central Hinds answered with a 12-2 run to push it back to a 32-point game by the end of the period.

“The second half, we played a lot better. Coach told us to just execute better, run our plays, and try to win the second half,” Beaugh said. “The second half built our confidence up. We’ll come in tomorrow night and work even harder.”

(B) Central Hinds 67, PCA 20

Porters Chapel’s linescore from Monday night read like a high school cheer: Two, four, six, eight…

But there was little to appreciate from the Eagles’ effort.

After winning the Union tournament over the weekend, PCA (2-1) managed only seven field goal attempts in the first half, committed 21 turnovers in that same span, and never cracked double digits in points in any quarter during a blowout loss.

“In the tournament last weekend we looked like a million dollars against a zone defense, and tonight it looks like they forgot how to play,” Griffin said.

Central Hinds took a 16-0 lead before the Eagles even had a shot hit the rim. It was 20-2 after one quarter, and 41-6 at halftime as the Cougars turned nearly every PCA turnover into an easy layup on the other end.

Central Hinds increased the lead to as many as 47 points in the third quarter before pulling its starters.

Blake Edwards led Central Hinds with 22 points and five assists, and Luke Townsend added 17 points and four steals. Chip Lofton had eight points for PCA, and Michael Warren had seven.