The Quitman Lady Bulldogs varsity basketball team is off to a 2-1 start in the 2023-24 season.

Quitman opened the season with a 50-29 victory over West Rusk on Tuesday, Nov. 7.

“We came out flat,” Coach Blake Hamrick said. “It took us three quarters to wake up. Once we decided to play we looked good. Ashley Davis has been really good on defense for us so far this year, and our two freshmen, Kaylin Sapp and Autumn Cason, are slowly adjusting to the speed of varsity.”

Quitman opened a 14-3 lead in the first quarter only to have West Rusk trim the margin to 24-19 at the half. A slow third quarter left Quitman ahead 30-22 before a 20-7 fourth period sealed the win.

Annabelle Popek paced the scoring with 15 points. Allie Berry added nine and Davis and Sapp six each. Berry pulled in 13 rebounds and Davis eight. Davis also had five assists and six steals. Berry had five steals and Sapp four while Cason added four assists.

Longview edged Quitman 50-40 on Nov. 4.

“We played really good considering it was our first game and Longview was so good defensively,” Hamrick said. “We got behind early and could never claw our way back quite enough but consistently kept it a 5-10 point game.

On Friday Quitman defeated Grand Saline 46-28 behind 15 points from Davis, 10 from Cason and seven each from Berry and Popek.

The Lady Bulldogs grabbed the lead in the first quarter 11-5 and extended it to 25-11 at the half and 36-17 after three periods.

“I thought we played our most complete game so far against Grand Saline,” Hamrick said. “Defensively we were very good. We are still struggling to make some easy shots at times, and our rebounding wasn’t great, but overall I was very pleased. We will see what we are made of this weekend when we go play Edgewood, Melissa and North Forney.”

Popek pulled in six rebounds and Cason five. Sadie Vander Schaaf dished seven assists. Popek had four steals.

The Lady Bulldogs will be in the Edgewood tournament Thursday through Saturday and travel to Hawkins next Tuesday with games at 11 a.m.