Nansemond River High School’s girls’ basketball team may lack height this season, but it has been making up for it with pressure defense, and Tuesday night’s home game against Oscar Smith High School was no exception to this trend.

The Lady Warriors improved to 6-1 on the season with a 64-42 win against the Lady Tigers.

“I thought, overall, we had a good effort, and on the defensive end, I thought we did some good things,” said Nansemond River coach R. Calvin Mason Sr.

His team played well in the first half, including winning the second quarter 23-9, but faced a stiff challenge from the Lady Tigers to start the second half.

“They came out in the third quarter, and they were highly motivated,” Mason said of the visitors, noting they scored about eight points in the first three minutes.

Meanwhile, he said the Lady Warriors came out a little flat.

“We kind of wanted to rest on what we’d done earlier,” he said.

But a good defensive effort following an adjustment in the game plan were the keys to shifting the momentum back Nansemond River’s way.

“We kind of changed our press a little bit,” Mason said, later noting it “kind of took some of the steam out of what they were doing.”

The Lady Warriors ended up out-scoring Oscar Smith 15-11 in the third period.

This season, “when we’ve been successful, we’ve been able to play good defense, good sound defense,” Mason said. “That has carried us.”

He praised his team by adding it has improved drastically on that end of the floor since last season.

Standing out for Nansemond River was freshman point guard Briana Autrey, who had 16 points, six steals and four assists.

“That’s a good night,” Mason said.

He also highlighted the play of sophomore guard/forward Daijah Norris, who helps hold things together for the Lady Warriors in unheralded ways.

“She’s kind of a glue person,” he said. “She does the small things for us.”

An injury in the fall limited her development with the team prior to the season. She has, nevertheless, been effective and contributed 13 points and eight rebounds on Tuesday.

Junior forward Aneka Yelverton significantly aided Nansemond River’s efforts with 15 points, and junior center Sabre Clegg chipped in nine.

The Lady Warriors (6-1, 1-0) visit King’s Fork High School (6-1, 1-0) this evening.