Mortimer Jordan point guard Jadyn Allen scored 14 points on Thursday night, as the Blue Devils beat Corner, 61-23. 

CORNER—The Mortimer Jordan girls basketball team secured home-court advantage on Thursday night at Corner.

A 61-23 road win locks the Blue Devils in as the Class 5A, Area 11 Tournament host later this season. Three players went for double digits on the scorebook, as Mortimer Jordan opened the game on a 16-0 run and cruised to its fourth conference win of the season.

Senior Anna Boger led all scorers with 19 points, only one of which came from the free-throw line. Junior point guard Jadyn Allen slashed her way to 14 points to go with 12 more from sophomore Mackynzie Watson.

“This was a big win for us. I’m proud of the girls for coming out as hard as they did and not just kind of going through the motions,” said Mortimer Jordan head coach Kelly Robinson.

His girls held Corner scoreless through the first frame and later went to the locker room with a 29-9 cushion. After the game, Robinson explained his defensive strategy: “We wanted to deny [Jiselle Woodson]. She makes them go, whether or not she’s scoring or distributing or handling the press, so we kind of wanted to take her out of the picture.”

To do so, he called on Skylar Bluemly and Madeline Snow to defend the junior guard for two minutes at a time. Woodson finished the game with three points scored for the Yellow Jackets.

“I was pleased with the movement out of the rest of the defense. I don’t think we gave up hardly any second-chance points,” said Robinson.

Thursday night’s win improves the Blue Devils to 4-0 in Area 11 play.

For Corner, junior Maddie Perricotti led the way with nine points.

Erik Harris is the Sports Editor of The North Jefferson News. Email him at njnsports@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @jeharris2.