The battlelines are beginning to be drawn within the high school girls basketball loops. In senior division II play on Monday, a pair of unbeaten teams went toe to toe, with the visiting St Charles College Cardinals emerging with a 43-32 win over the Horizon Aigles.

Improving to 3-0, the Cards used a high pressure defense to stake out a 24-9 lead at the half, surviving a third quarter run where the homeside drew to within four points on a couple of occasions before finally pulling away.

Taylor Portelance paced the St Charles attack with 15 points, with Brittany Reinhardt adding an even dozen, while Melanie Pitre countered with 13 points for the Aigles.

With a whole slew of graduated juniors making the move up to the senior ranks, and former Bishop Carter coach Sean Gilroy now handling the reigns with the Cardinals, one might expect a period of adjustment. Currently tied for first place, that simply hasn't been the case for the St Charles side.

"We're actually playing pretty solid basketball right now," noted grade 11 forward Julia Kinna. "Our defense is really good, and on offense, we're getting there." In fact, it was a smothering full court press that was used frequently by the visitors that created the stiffest test for Horizon, allowing the Cardinals to counter-attack quickly at various stages of the game.

"We've always focused on defense, because we believe that defense is the most important part of the game," Kinna noted. "Defense is definitely my favourite part." St Charles will meet up with the only remaining unbeaten team later this evening, battling the 3-0 Macdonald-Cartier Panthères at 6:30 p.m. on their home court.