Rachel Sand’s double-double helped lift LCA over Trinity Tuesday morning. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

WINONA LAKE — The Lakeland Christian girls basketball team went 1-1 on the first day of the annual Cougar Classic.

The ladies started their day with a dominating win over Trinity before falling to Covenant Christian. LCA rolled through its morning game with a 60-30 throttling of Trinity behind a double-double outing from Rachel Sand.

Sand tallied 12 points before the half, scoring six in each of the first two quarters, then started the second half with an eight-point effort in the third quarter. Sand was just the icing on the scoring cake the Cougars served up as nine of 10 players scored for the home team.

“That was huge for us,” said LCA coach Allison Kauffman of her team’s scoring output. “Coming off of Christmas break it was great to get so many girls involved and very helpful given the format of the tournament.”

Sand tallied the double-double with a game-high 22 points and 11 rebounds. The senior also recorded three steals and had just one turnover for the contest.

Trinity was not able to keep pace with Sand and the Cougars. Outside of Sand’s large total, it was an extremely balanced attack from LCA. Ellie Nieveen (eight), Hannah Delp (six), Maddie Paris (six), Melissa Goss (four), Carissa Urschalitz (four), Brady Gross (four), Abigail Fishel (two) and Brighty Walters (two) rounded out the scoring for the Cougars. Goss led the home team with six assists while tying for the team lead with four steals with Delp.

Kauffman was impressed with her team’s effort. Tuesday’s game was the third win for LCA over Trinity this season but the last game saw the Cougars make a few mistakes early before ultimately pulling out a win.

“The last time we played we fell behind 14-4,” began Kauffman, “so I really pushed to the girls that I wanted a good start and they responded to that. They came out strong with energy and intensity and that’s what I was most proud of from them today.”

In the afternoon game LCA took on Covenant and fell 45-29. Delp led the Cougars with 15 points, Goss added another nine. Sand led the team with seven rebounds.