Valley Christian girls basketball coach Scott Timmer knows what he has in senior guard Bethany Wolph. It's all about keeping her healthy for her final prep season.

Wolph tallied 19 points in the first half to boost Valley Christian to a commanding lead that stifled visiting upstart Leading Edge Academy from start to finish in a 52-25 win on Friday night for the unbeaten Trojans at Valley Christian.

Wolph, who enjoyed an injury-free freshman year only to be plagued by health issues the past two seasons, was the only player scoring with consistency in the opening half. She finished with 24 points for the game, knocking down 4 of 10 threes. She was 7 of 13 from the field in the first half as Valley Christian opened up a 31-12 lead after two quarters. She is averaging almost 20 points a game thus far.

Leading Edge had trouble with pressure from the get-go. It missed its first nine shots, was 3 of-18 from the field in the first quarter and just 4 of 27 for the half. The Spartans also turned the ball over 15 times in the two periods.

"So far, so good for her with her health," Timmer said. "We got a little bit of a scare the other night (Tuesday) against Safford. She took a hit on a clean play both players going hard after the ball. Her knee held up. She's been great so far."

The game had both teams inspired. Valley Christian (7-0) is a perennial title contender in the 3A ranks. Leading Edge is in its first season competing outside charter school competition. where it dominated. The Spartans brought a 10-1 record to VC with their only loss the first week to 6A Perry in an invitational. 

Coach Erik Gray hoped his team would have shown better than it did.

"We were looking forward to this for the competition," Gray said. "It's something for us to learn from, and that's what I told the girls after. I've looked at Valley Christian and how they've done over the years. It's a program to model yourself after. We didn't play very well, didn't shoot well and didn't rebound. That killed us."

Timmer said his team was revved up to play as well, knowing the reputation Leading Edge brought from its time in charter leagues.

"We knew they played last night and we went after them with full court pressure," TImmer said. "We had a couple days of practice and rest. We were ready to play a quality opponent. I think they're going to do well (in 2A)."

Senior Megan Timmer handled much of the rest of the scoring load for Valley Christian. She finished with 14 points, 10 in the second half.

Leading Edge had difficulty scoring from every corner, but junior Jasmine McKinney managed to tally 12 points before exiting late in the third quarter after she thought her knee gave out on a scoring attempt inside. She came back to the bench with ice on her left knee and on her head.

"We're hoping she's OK," Gray said. "We'll have to see tomorrow. We have our fourth game this week tomorrow. I doubt she'll play." Leading Edge plays its third game in as many days on Saturday at Tempe Prep.

Valley Christian plays one more power-ranking game before the holiday break. That's at hoe on Saturday against Snowflake. Monday throughn Thursday next week Valley Christian tries its hand in the Nike TOC.