The St. Louis girls and Washington-Marion boys maintained good, early season form on the opening night of District 4-4A basketball play on Tuesday, with the Saints beating W-M 49-31 in the girls game, and the homestanding Charging Indians winning the boys game 58-49.

In the girls game, St. Louis (14-8, 1-0) gave up a basket to start the game then went on a 21-2 run to take control. Jada Peltier scored 11 of her game-high 23 points during the run.

Saints head coach Tony Johnson said he liked what he saw on both sides of the court.

“We came out ready to play,” Johnson said. “We had to shut some people down. (Washington-Marion guard Monasha) Eddie is a good player. We were able to play good defense and allow 31 points. Our goal is to give up 10 points a quarter, and tonight we were at 7.5. That says a lot about the girls, they are working hard on the defensive end.

“Jada is coming out of the shell. She really took it to the next level. That is her job as a senior. As a senior on this team, Coach Johnson is looking for you to be his leader. We have four of them and they are all great leaders, but the team goes as Jada goes. Tonight, we were clicking on all cylinders.”

W-M (6-12, 0-1) scored the first seven points of the second quarter to pull within 14, but never got closer. St. Louis responded with 11 straight points, the first nine by Peltier.

Ashley Cherry W-M with 10 points.

In the boys game, W-M (14-5, 1-0) never trailed and started the second quarter with a 14-2 run to extend a four-point lead to 16.

“We were running, taking care of the ball and not turning it over,” said W-M head coach Albert Hartwell. “We were controlling the ball, seeing each other, making good passes and playing good defense.”

St. Louis (8-13, 0-1) made a couple of second-half runs to get back into the game, scoring nine straight in the third quarter to get within six, then 10 straight in the fourth quarter to get within five with 1:09 remaining. W-M scored the final four points of the game from the free-throw line to seal the win.

“We turned the ball over,” Hartwell said of the second half. “Everyone was trying to be a hero. That’s the youth in us. We try to do things we are not supposed to do. Our kids got inactive and then we had three or four silly turnovers. We were trying to get a dunk, got too happy. We can’t lighten up. But, they are learning.”

Mark Vital led W-M with a game-high 21 points. Karlis Gardner led St. Louis with 11, including four during the Saints’ fourth-quarter run.

St. Louis’ Jada Peltier gets fouled driving for the layup against Washington-Marion Tuesday night. Peltier scored 23 points in the Lady Saints’ victory. (Rick Hickman / American Press)

Washington-Marion’s Mark Vital dunks against Tuesday night. (Rick Hickman / American Press)