By TREY HICKMAN/For the Reporter

WEST BLOCTON — In a game characterized by uninspiring play from both teams, solid defense and enough offense combined to offset Montevallo’s overall lack of refinement and help the Bulldogs take down host West Blocton 29-10 in girls basketball.

Turnovers and errant shots marred a matchup in which the squads combined for only six points in the first quarter and 15 by halftime. In fact, the first bucket of the game came over three minutes into the opening period. In the initial two quarters, Natalie Holsomback posted eight of her game-high 10 points as Montevallo (5-5) built a seven-point lead. The Bulldogs increased their lead over the latter two periods to grab the victory.

“It was sloppy,” said Montevallo head coach Tena Niven. “Once again we got everybody kind of in there to play a little bit. The thing we were really working on tonight was defense. We held them to 10 points I think for the game, and it doesn’t matter really who you play, that’s still a pretty good thing.

“We’ve won every ballgame that we’ve done that (hold the opponent to under 30 points) so far this year, so that’s kind of our goal when we set out on defense is to hold the opponent to under 30. And like I told you that’s something that we’re really working on right now, that’s what we stress, and so that’s what we were really looking for tonight.”

Montevallo is 5-0 when holding its opponent to below 30 points.

For the Bulldogs, Holsomback had her 10 points, followed by Dakota Dubose and Myshael Thompson with six each.

Brooklyn Woods and Lora Wallace had four points apiece for West Blocton (3-10).