The Mohawk High girls basketball team got the start it was looking for.

Shenango wasn’t so fortunate.

The Lady Warriors jumped out to a 16-2 lead in the first quarter and never looked back in a 55-30 WPIAL Section 2-AA home victory over the Lady Wildcats last night.

“I thought our kids played really well,” Mohawk coach Mike O’Lare said. “We wanted to come out strong, because we’ve been struggling early in games. We were really happy with that start.”

The Lady Warriors turned up the defensive pressure in the first quarter, forcing the Lady Wildcats (2-3, 6-7) into a handful of mistakes over the first eight minutes.

“Our defensive pressure caused some turnovers early and we were able to finish at the rim,” O’Lare said. “It was our defensive intensity that got us some steals and layups at the other end.”

Shenango trailed 31-11 at halftime and managed just nine field goals on the evening.

“We had good opportunities to score, but we just didn’t knock them down when we needed to,” Lady Wildcats coach Brian Turk said. “We missed five good shots right off the bat. That might have changed things momentum-wise.

“Mohawk plays really good man-to-man defense. They forced us to shoot a lot of shots outside the paint and they had a lot of shots inside the paint. They had a lot of high-percentage shots and we didn’t.”

Mohawk maintained its defensive pressure in the second half.

“Brian does a good job with those kids,” O’Lare said. “Those kids aren’t going to quit. They’re going to compete hard. It puts pressure on us to continue the (hot start), because we knew they were going to come back. We had to make sure we were on top of our game.”

Aliya Gage and Samantha Carr pumped in double figures to lead the Lady Warriors. Gage led all scorers with 18 points, while Carr notched 15.

“Aliya did a great job of finishing, especially early,” O’Lare said. “She was finishing well. Sam played well overall. She had a tough defensive matchup and was still able to score.”

The win allowed Mohawk (5-1, 11-1) to keep pace with current Section 2 leader Neshannock (6-0, 14-0).

“I’d like to be 6-0, but that’s me being selfish,” O’Lare said. “I just like how we’re playing right now. We’re playing well on offense and we’re playing as a team defensively. I still think there’s another level we can get to in the second half of section play.”

Angelina Sibeto led Shenango with 14 points.

“We just didn’t play well,” Turk said. “It just wasn’t our night. We ran into a good team that’s playing really well right now. We just couldn’t get anything going.

“We’ll go back to work (today) and get ready for New Brighton (tomorrow). Hopefully, we can get a win against them and go into next week at 3-3 in the section. We definitely have some work to do.”