Unfortunately for Gibbons, the 6-foot-5 forward exhibited a soft shooting touch, leading her team to a 55-49 win on Wednesday.

Stevens finished with 26 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks, leaving Cardinal Gibbons coach Jessica Lowe both frustrated and impressed.

“She’s a great shooter, however, I was going to give that up rather than her to get layups,” Lowe said. “She ended up making several 3s which ended up killing us.”

Cary lead 24-23 at halftime, but the momentum appeared to have swung Cardinal Gibbons’ way in the third quarter when guards Morgan Reid and Ava Avedikian caught fire from the perimeter. They helped their team take a 39-37 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

“Those are our two best shooters and we were fortunate to make those,” Lowe said.

In the third, Cary coach Donald Kent saw a team that was impatient on offense and out of sync on defense.

“We were rushing in the beginning of the third quarter,” he said. “It was one pass, one shot. We called a time out to try to settle us down, work the ball around and move it a little bit better. Defensively, we had to figure out who we had and make sure they didn’t get any threes.”

Kent's Imps were composed in the final period.

Stevens and Whitney Coleman combined for 16 of Cary’s 18 points in the fourth quarter as the team held Cardinal Gibbons to just 10 points during that span.

“Stevens is a great basketball player and we struggled in the fourth quarter keeping them off the glass," Lowe said. "If we gave them one shot, we may have had a shot to keep it closer in the fourth quarter.”

The win was Cary’s first of the season. Kent marveled at how much better his team performed in comparison to the previous night’s 24-point loss to Tri-Nine foe Holly Springs.

“We didn’t look like the same team we did last night,” he said. “Tonight we were more patient, and we did things better.”

Reid and Avedikian finished with 22 and 15 points, respectively. Whitney Coleman added 16 points for Cary.