Chelsea's Mackenzie Cole goes up for a layup during the Bulldogs' 57-27 win over Redford Thurston.

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com

It took the Chelsea High School girls basketball team one quarter to recover from what Chelsea coach Todd Blomquist called "the Christmas blues," before the Bulldogs got on a roll and beat Redford Thurston 57-27 Tuesday night at the Holiday Basketball Tournament at Chelsea High School.

Chelsea (5-0) scored the game's first three points in the opening minute, but struggled for the rest of the first quarter and trailed 10-5 going into the second.

"We took four days off, and it looked like we had four days off," Blomquist said of the first quarter. "We were sluggish to start with, but then we started turning our defense into offense."

Chelsea's relentless ball pressure, and the transition opportunities it created, helped the Bulldogs outscore Thurston 25-7 in the second quarter, and Chelsea never looked back.

As is typical for Chelsea, nine different players scored, and seven players knocked down more than one field goal. Megan Hall led the way with 12 points, while Riley Singleton scored nine, and Rachel Cooperrider added eight.

"Our defense started to create easy looks for our offense, and we picked up our intensity," Blomquist said of the second quarter surge. "We regrouped. We said 'that's not who we are or how we play.'"

The referees' whistles blew early and often in the game, as the two teams combined to shoot 52 foul shots.