Perhaps the most notable aspect of the Manhattan High girls basketball team’s perfect 5-0 start to the 2015 season has been its defensive efforts. The Lady Indians are surrendering just 35 points per game.

The efforts on the defensive end have been a welcome sight for head coach Scott Mall, because Friday night was when they shined.

Mall’s Lady Indians knocked off Junction City Friday, 63-27, a game in which Manhattan pitched a shutout in the fourth quarter.

Make no mistake, though — throughout the previous three frames, though Manhattan held a double-digit lead, Mall said the cushion did not feel very thick.

“It was a dogfight until then,” he said. “It was surprising to look up in the fourth quarter when it got past 20. You think ‘whoa, where did that come from?’ It always seemed like a 12-point game.”

MHS forced Junction City into six turnovers in the final period, adding to the 21 over the entirety of the contest. And though he explained defense was an emphasis, Mall also attributed the shutout, to a certain extent, to JC’s lack of offensive efficiency.

“They got in a little bit of a hurry, maybe, and forced some things,” he said. “And then, when they made mistakes, we were able to capitalize.”

The floodgates opened on the offensive end as well in the fourth. Manhattan tallied 18 points, an output a host of Lady Indians contributed to. Freshman Garrin Williams added six of her 14 points on the night in the fourth.

“She was really aggressive with the ball, which is good,” Mall said. “In a game like this, when they’re aggressive, you have to be aggressive.”

Williams took some of the scoring load off junior Gigi McAtee and senior Madison Mittie, who have served as MHS’ leading scorers on the young season. Though they finished with 12 and 10, respectively, a healthy dosage of their looks came closer to the basket, rather than from beyond the arc, where they have done damage.

“We knew that they were going to pressure us a lot, so we knew that we were going to have to make a lot of basket cuts,” Mittie said. “We knew that we had to get to the basket.”

The senior guard tallied eight of her 10 points in the first quarter, when Manhattan took a quick lead. The Lady Indians led 18-7 after one.

McAtee picked up where she Mittie left off in the second, burying a three to extend MHS’ lead to 21-9. From there, though, the scoring was handled by the underclassmen: Williams logged four points, and freshman Kia Wilson posted three, and sophomore Josie Hilgers added two.

The Lady Indians led 32-20 at the intermission.

MHS followed with just a nine-point third quarter, carrying on a trend that began in the second frame: missed free throws. Manhattan went just 11-of-25 for the game.

“We had so many bounce around and not go in. I know we’re a better free throw shooting team than that,” Mall said. “Thank goodness, maybe, we wasted it on a night when it worked out that we didn’t have to have it.”

Despite the struggles at the line, though, the effort was good enough for a 43-27 lead after three, an advantage that only swelled with the fourth-quarter shutout.

McAtee said her team’s defense, one that has stifled opponents already, has been up to par with her expectations.

“I’m not really surprised. I knew the younger girls coming in, and I knew what we were capable of,” she said. “We got it done and stepped up.”

The Lady Indians return to action Jan. 5 against Seaman, their home-opener.