By DAVE WOODALL
Slidell sports writer
SLIDELL — The Salmen Lady Spartans got more than a 61-39 win last week against Helen Cox. They were presented with the 2014 Class 4A state championship banner in a ceremony before the game that put a stamp on their second, consecutive state championship.
“Having that championship banner presented to us felt really good,” Salmen center and Baylor commitment Kalani Brown said. “It just made me hungry for another one.”
As in their first game of the season, Salmen came out sluggish and fell behind.
Salmen (2-0) trailed Cox (0-1) 21-19 at halftime and fell behind 24-19 early in the third quarter when Bre Burras drained a three-pointer in their first possession of the second half.
“Cox is a very good team with good guards who were penetrating,” Salmen coach Kevin Anderson said. “We talked at halftime of stopping their dribble penetration. We changed the defense, and it was harder for them to score.”
But Brown had seen enough.
She led a 14-2 run in the quarter and scored nine of her game-high 18 points while adding six blocks.
Cox put on a full-court press that slowed the Salmen offensive attack and forced Spartan coach Kevin Anderson to call timeout with the score at 33-30.
Following the timeout, the Spartans went on a 7-0 run to end the quarter and take a 40-30 lead. In all, Salmen outscored the Cougars 21-9 in the third and forced five turnovers.
From then on Salmen started to pull away after it solved the Cougar press and began to convert easy looks at the basket.
Salmen forced 18 turnovers and held Cox to 4-of-21 from the three-point line.
Tiara Warren had 12 points and two treys to go along with five rebounds and four assists.
Kayla Sibley added seven points and 10 rebounds while Myre Cooper had eight points and five steals.
For Cox, Danayea Charles had 12 points, three steals and three assists.
Tyrionne Martin picked up 12 points, three treys, six rebounds and two steals.
“We’re younger this year,” Brown said. “We do have a lot of potential. Once we put all our effort into it, we can be that same team from last year.”