The fast start the Highland girls basketball team got off to the first 10 days of this season is old news to coach Miner Webster.

The host Hawks, after a 7-0 start , dropped their second game in a row Tuesday night when last year's 5A-I state runner-up St. Mary's throtted them, 72-38.

The combination of St. Mary's being very hungry after last year's two-point loss in the 5A-I title game to Dobson and perhaps some complacency/trepidation on Highland's part led to an uncharacteristic drubbing for the Hawks.

"We might have gotten an over-inflated sense of  ourselves after winning our  tournament and beating Tolleson," Webster said. "We may have had more turnovers than points tonight."

St. Mary's, which improved to 3-0 with its third straight rout of the young season, has nearly all its key players back from last year. Add coach Curtis Ekmark's daughter, freshman Courtney Ekmark and her 3-point shooting touch, and the Knights are showing signs of being awfully hard to beat this year.

With sophomore guards Danielle and Dominque Williams supplying pressure to the ball all over the floor, St. Mary's forced 21 turnovers in the first half. The Knights led just 24-19 after one period, but stretched the lead to 45-30 by halftime as Highland turnovers mounted. Four quick turnovers by Highland to open the third period saw the margin rise to 51-30. It was 60-30 with three minutes left in the third period.

"With us is starts with pressure defense," Curtis Ekmark said. "We get offense from our defense. What I like so far is we have nice balance of 3-point shooting, post play and driving to the basket. We played very well tonight."

Four St. Mary's players scored in double figures led by Courtney Ekmark with 19. Shilpa Tummala added 14 points and Danielle Williams had 12. Cortnee Walton, contributing mostly from the post, had 10.

"They overpowered us defensively, and we didn't recover well on defense," Webster said. "They got a lot of layups off turnovers. We're going to have to go back to the basics and figure some things out.....

"I know St. Mary's is going to be tough for most teams to beat. We offered very little resistance to them tonight."