If the girls basketball teams from Manchester and Clinton high schools end up meeting in a Class district final, they will have reached that point in similar fashion.

At least that was the case Monday night, when both teams used a stifling pressure defense in their postseason openers at Manchester High School. And that was bad news for their opponents, Greenhills and Willow Run.

After a shaky start, Clinton turned things up a notch and cruised to a 56-32 win over Greenhills in the night's first semifinal.

"We really thought we could compete if we played the right game," Greenhills coach Lisa Mack said. "We knew Clinton was going to be one of the toughest teams in the district, so it was a matter of us executing semi-flawlessly in order to beat them. We knew that going in.

"We knew we had to break their press, that was square one. And we had far too much trouble breaking that press."

The teams were tied 11-11 early in the second quarter, thanks mainly to a plethora of missed layups by Clinton (16-4). Once the Redskins started converting on the offensive chances their defense was creating, they pulled away.

Willow Run was never able to to truly handle Manchester's defense, but most of the damage necessary in a 64-16 Flying Dutch win was done by the time the first quarter horn ended with the score 26-3.

Sophomore Taylor Manders led a defensive charge that created turnover after turnover, thrice turning a steal into a coast-to-coast fast break layup in the game's first five minutes. She scored 12 of her 14 points in that first quarter and assisted on two other Manchester baskets.

During one stretch, Manchester (13-7) scored nine points without allowing Willow Run to cross mid-court. And even if the Flyers were able to set up an offense, it wasn't uncommon for them to fail to get off a shot. By halftime, when the score was 39-5, Manchester was 15-of-41 from the floor compared to 2-of-19 for Willow Run.