BELHAVEN — Pungo center Taylor Mann scored over 30 points in what was an outstanding individual showing. However, the rest of the Lady Raiders’ offense couldn’t muster much in Thursday’s 62-42 conference loss to Ridgecroft.

The two sides were locked at 14-14 after the first eight minutes. Pungo had been keeping up, but the Lady Rams took over once they began to key in on Mann. They often double and triple teamed the Pungo standout. As she struggled to score, so too did the Lady Raiders.

“They don’t have anyone height-wise that can match up with (Mann) like that,” said Pungo coach Melanie Sawyer. “Of course we were going to try to do that.”

Ridgecroft coach Susan Oliver added, “We knew, for the most part, that (Mann) was their threat for us, so we did shut her down and made them shoot from the outside.”

Pungo may not have been too comfortable shooting from the outside, but the visiting Lady Rams were. Ruthie Daniels opened the second period with a pair of 3-pointers that quickly gave Ridgecroft a 20-14 advantage. Emily Grace punctuated the half with a trey of her own to put Pungo in a 33-23 hold heading into halftime.

The two teams last met on Dec. 14. After seeing Pungo’s 1-3-1 zone defense first hand, Ridgecroft schemed ahead of time how to break it. Once they were figured out, the Lady Rams made adjustments to their defense.

“It took them a while. They got it, then we changed,” Sawyer said. “You have to adjust to everything they do. They’ve got really good ball handlers and they like to go to the basket, so we tried to make them go to the outside as much as we can. But we eventually had to go to man-to-man because we were so far down.”

Despite how well the Lady Rams were shooting from the perimeter, forcing them out there worked out. They made one 3-pointer in the second half.

Pungo is still attempting to find its footing following all the downtime it had around Christmas and New Years.

“You can tell it’s a layoff. It’s like starting all over again,” Sawyer said. “We’ll get there. By tournament time, we’ll be good to go.”

Game experience is the best way for the Lady Raiders to get their bearings again. After traveling to Hobgood on Friday, they’ll get another shot to take the floor when they host Terra Ceia on Tuesday.