Asha Mitchell breaks away from Amber Ball, left, and Kenzie Church of South Umpqua during their game Tuesday evening in North Bend. World Photo by Lou Sennick.

NORTH BEND — North Bend’s girls basketball team put visiting South Umpqua away early, coach Mike Forrester emptied his bench and the Bulldogs cruised to an easy 59-28 win Tuesday night.

North Bend harried South Umpqua with a stifling press and trapping zone defense throughout the game. The Bulldogs did a good job of getting out into passing lanes, and the result was the Lancers struggled to find good shots — they were held to an abysmal 10-for-41 shooting on the night.

North Bend also forced 18 turnovers in the game.

“They had a hard time getting into their offense because of our defense,” Forrester said. “Our press was awfully tough.”

North Bend took care of business on the boards, as well, out-rebounding South Umpqua 36-16.

Alexandra “Super” Mateski lived up to her nickname for North Bend, earning 17 points on efficient 8-for-14 shooting while gathering in eight boards.

“We came out ready to play,” Mateski said. “I think we’ve been playing hard to try and stay in first place.”

With the win, the Bulldogs moved to 3-0 in Far West League play and remained in a first-place tie with Sutherlin.

Brooke Davison had a solid game at point guard for North Bend; she tallied 11 points to go with six steals and five assists. Forrester in particular liked the way Davison ran the fast break.

“She did a lot better job of looking up the court,” Forrester said.

North Bend won the opening tip-off and jumped out to an early 6-0 lead on a successful lob pass from Davison to Mateski — the lob play worked twice for the Bulldogs — a rebound and putback from Blair Davis and a steal and layup by Emily Foster.

North Bend then went on to force six turnovers and out-rebound South Umpqua 14-4 in the opening period en route to an 18-4 lead after one.

Forrester intermittently pulled off the full-court press throughout the second quarter as the game’s score got ugly; the Bulldogs held a 31-11 edge at the half.

North Bend really buried the Lancers in the opening minutes of the third quarter, though.

Mateski converted a steal into a layin, Taylor Weidman drained a 3-pointer, Davison stole the ball for another layin and Cayla Newman gathered in an offensive rebound and made the putback to give the Bulldogs a 40-11 lead around the 6-minute mark.

It was smooth sailing from there, as Forrester went deep into his bench — all 15 players who suited up made it into the game — and North Bend rolled to the win.

“It was great for everybody to get that varsity playing time. It pays off down the road,” Forrester said.

The Lancers had a 5-0 run to start the fourth quarter, mainly on a pair of layups from Jenny Stevenson, to close to within 52-20 but never got closer than the final score of 59-28 against the Bulldogs’ second and third string players.

North Bend implemented a couple of new offensive sets in the game: One was the alley-oop play that worked to perfection twice; another was a low-post “seal” play, where the ball swings around the perimeter and the forward gets inside position for an easy bucket. Mateski in particular got some gimmes from the “seal” set as well.

“Super does a good job using her body on that,” Forrester said. “She’s a lot different than she was last year. She understands where she can score from now.”

Davis did a good job on the low post too, chipping in with seven points and eight rebounds.

Stevenson and Angel Lockwood led the Lancers with six points apiece.

The Bulldogs will need some more solid post play when they travel to Siuslaw on Friday for another Far West matchup; the 1-2 Vikings feature a dominant forward in 6-foot, 2-inch junior Alexis Reavis, a returning second team all-league selection from last year.

“(Reavis) is going to be a handful for us,” Forrester said. “We’ve got to take care of business.”