Defense wins championships, defense wins games. Xavier Coach Tom Lilly is a coach who believes in defense and the Xavier Saints girls basketball team showed they can play defense Monday night with a convincing 76-26 victory over Davenport West.

Senior Alex Bartz lead the Saints with 13 points while fellow senior Emily Walvoord added 12 points in Xavier's season opener.

But this game was about defense.

“Unless you can guarantee me 20 (points) and nine (rebounds) you better be able to play on the defensive end of the floor,” Lilly said.

The Saints' defense held the Falcons to just five shots in the first quarter and used an aggressive press and fast-break points to jump out to a 15-8 lead.

As if the first quarter defense wasn’t good enough the Saints defense got even better in the second quarter. Xavier limited the Falcons to no field goals and just three points in the period. The Saints continued to press and push the ball and ran the score to 34-11 at halftime.

“We are paying attention to what it takes to get on the floor,” Lilly said about his girls’ strong defense.

Xavier all but put the game away in the third quarter as they pushed the ball up the floor for multiple easy buckets. The quick points for the Saints gave them a 23-9 advantage in the third quarter push their lead to 37 going in to the final period.

"Scoring off easy opportunities can really spread the margin (of the game) out,” Lilly said.

Despite sitting all five starters for the last six minutes of the fourth quarter, the Saints continued to control the game. The Saints' bench players finished strong pushing the lead to 50.

The Saints forced 35 turnovers and held the Falcons to 8 of 26 shooting.

Xavier travels to Decorah on Tuesday. The Saints go to Johnston on Saturday.

The Xavier sophomores also won, 48-23.

DAVENPORT WEST (26): Sara Dorton 0 0-2 0, Alexis Quandt 2 0-0 4, Shyanne Saladino 0 1-4 1, Mallory Moore 2 2-6 6, Samie Belz 3 3-6 9, Mariah Bundy 0 2-2 2, Alex Finn 0 0-0 0, Brooke Garnica 1 0-0 3, Gale Schmitz 0 0-0 0, Kortney Nagle 0 0-0 0, Mary Ackerman 0 0-0 0, DeLaney Welch 0 1-2 1. Team 8 9-22 26.

XAVIER (76): Annie Dale 3 1-2 7, Nicole Noonan 2 0-0 5, Katlyn Andersen 2 0-0 5, Emily Walvoord 6 0-0 12, Alex Bartz 4 5-6 13, Katelyn Winker 2 0-0 4, Sarah Dickes 2 0-0 4, Lisa Boomgarden 1 2-2 4, Kayla Armstrong 3 0-0 6, Ashley Stulken 2 2-2 6, Hayley Deutmeyer 3 0-0 6, Maddie Bertsch 0 0-0 0, Hannah Chute 0 0-0 0, Allison Chorzempa 2 0-0 4. Team 32 10-12 76.

Halftime – Xavier 34, Davenport West 11. 3-point goals – Davenport West 1 (Garnica), Xavier 2 (Anderson, Noonan). Total Fouls – Davenport West 12, Xavier 21.