Coach Craig Pippen's Lady Lakers moved to 4-1 on the season after a 61-45 win Thursday at Laker Gym over the Warren East Lady Raiders.

Russell County was led in scoring by sophomore LeeAnn Grider who scored 22 points, dished out five assists and came up with five steals on the night. The Lady Lakers shot a blistering 77 percent from the field in the first half of play and finished the game with 54 percent shooting.

"We cam e out and shot the ball well," said Lady Laker coach Craig Pippen.

"I thought our intensity was good in the first half but I don't think it was great in the second half."

Pippen said his team was learning that when you get a team down, you have to finish the job.

"Early in the season you'll see lengths of time where we fall behind with our intensity but we're getting better game by game," he said.

 "That is one thing you always want to see as a coach is improvements … one thing we tell our girls is that it is a 32 minute ballgame and every possession matters."

He said that while his team has three seniors, it is still a relatively young team and a team with three sophomore starters.

"We're going to make mistakes and we're going to have lapses in the intensity department but we're improving," he said.

Also scoring for Russell County was senior Lindsay Ramage with 12 points and seven rebounds, eight points apiece for senior Blair Hoover and sophomore Regan Helm, six points for sophomore Julie Wethington, four points for sophomore Amanda Cooper and one point for sophomore Madison Loy.

The Lady Laker defense also swarmed the Lady Raiders, causing 24 turnovers and prompting them to only shoot 36 percent from the field as a team.