Mike Lang, coach of the Trinity Lutheran girls basketball team, says the Cougars need to play with more consistency in future games than what it did Tuesday night in beating Indianapolis Lutheran 58-40 in the Bollinger Athletic Complex.

The Cougars jumped on top 18-0 at the end of the first period. The Saints didn’t score until Caitlyn Brooks hit a short jumper at the 6:50-mark of the second quarter.

“We just got them playing a style they didn’t want to play,” Lang said. “They weren’t comfortable with (a transition game). I thought our defense was fairly aggressive from the press. We were getting after it, we were getting hands in the passing lanes. We were able to get some easy buckets and the kids had energy and were fresh during the first part of the game.

“We were telling them to attack the basket and we settled for jumpers. Over a 14-minute stretch we settled for 12 points because we were settling for jumpers and not attacking the basket.”

Lang said he was disappointed his team didn’t increase its lead during the last three periods when each team scored 40 points.

“We kind of got a little stale in the second half, in the second quarter,” he said.

Bailey Tabeling, who topped all players with 21 points, scored 8 points in the opening period, and Madison Keith added 4 points.

Tabeling added two baskets in the second period when the Cougars outscored the Saints 10-7 to lead 28-7 at the break.

Keith added three field goals, and Liza Froedge added two baskets in the third when Trinity was outscored 16-14 to lead 42-23 going into the fourth period.

Lang said Keith had her best game of the season as she scored 15 points to go along with 7 rebounds.

“I thought Madison ran the floor hard, I thought she went after the boards hard,” Lang said. “She mixed it up really well. Through five games this is the best game she’s played as a freshman.”

Keith said, “I think after we got up in the first quarter we just kind of figured we’d stay up the whole time, and we quit playing as hard as we were in the first quarter. That’s why they made more points the last three quarters than they did in the first quarter.”

The Cougars will travel to Edinburgh Thursday night and Keith said, “No matter who we’re playing we have to play like we’re playing Brownstown or Scottsburg. We just have to stay up the whole time.”

Lang said, “For us to be successful we have got to do a better job moving forward, attacking the basket, putting more pressure on the other defense. Missing shots isn’t good defense.

“We’re pleased to be 5-0, but if anything stuck out tonight we’ve got a lot of stuff we need to work on in order to move forward and be competitive down the stretch. If we’ve got to stay in our press longer to keep our intensity and our tempo going in a more up-tempo pace that’s we’re going to do.”

Froedge scored 10 points and had a team-high 9 rebounds.

Brooks topped the Saints (2-4) with 15 points and Grace King scored 11.

After the game at Edinburgh, the Cougars will be home Saturday night to face Scottsburg.