ROYAL CITY – After beginning the season 3-0 then dropping back-to-back games to Shadle Park and Prosser, the Ephrata girls basketball team defeated Royal 54-32 on the road on Tuesday night.

“It feels good, we just had to grind out some stuff in practice this week,” Ephrata Head Coach Alain Black said. “That’s been our focus. Prosser is a good team, and so we didn’t sit on it too long – we went past it and got ready for Royal.”

Ephrata forced turnovers to feed its fast-paced offensive attack, utilizing fast breaks to catch the Royal defense flat-footed.

“That was our offensive goal, is run the fast break,” Black said. “We don’t need to run offense if we can run fast break, and that’s what we’re going to have to do to be in some games in the league.”

Black said that playing fast and moving up and down the court is more difficult for opposing teams to scout.

“Teams can’t scout fast break,” Black said. “They can scout offense all they want, but if you want to run quickly they can’t scout breaks. That was our goal coming into tonight, we want to run.”

Junior Addison Mills, who Black said is “the fastest big in the league,” recorded her fourth-straight double-double on Tuesday night, finishing with a team-high 24 points.

“That’s what we’re trying to get the girls to understand, is you have one of the best bigs in the league who can run the floor, who can rebound, so we’ve got to utilize that,” Black said.

Mills scored 13 of her 24 points during the second quarter.

“For her, it’s just keep building on it and know what she has to fine-tune,” Black said. “She’s just a natural athlete.”

Along with strong performances in transition, Black noted that the team had imposed its will on Royal throughout the game.

“We had hustle all around from everyone,” Black said. “All the girls both ways were getting beat up, and the girls just kept plucking away and going at them. That grit and that hustle, they really gave it tonight.”

Ian Bivona can be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.