By JAMES BESSETTE

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COVENTRY — Snow was problem No.1 for the Coventry girls’ basketball team in getting ready for last night’s divisional bout with South Kingstown.

Unfortunately for the Oakers, the Rebels’ size was problem No. 2.

South Kingstown came into Coventry High School and showed the Oakers why it is one of the perennial favorites in Division I – let alone I-South – through the early weeks of the season in a 57-32 throttling of Coventry.

It didn’t take long for the Rebels to use their size advantage to attack the basket down low and then immediately apply a man-to-man, full-court press against Coventry. Behind the strong inside play of Annie Lawler (game-high 15 points) and Alexandra Jones (10 points), South Kingstown jumped out to a 15-0 lead through the first 5 minutes, 11 seconds of the game before the Oakers had a chance to blink.

“We knew we had a size advantage,” South Kingstown head coach Joel Tuoni said. “We had a size advantage on a lot of people. We’re looking to go inside as much as we can. We have some very talented kids that can put the ball in the basket down low.”

Tuoni added that he also wants to have more options on offense along with having Lawler and Jones controlling the paint. Tuoni saw that through a good portion of the game last night as the Rebels worked the perimeter well once Coventry’s defense was drawn into the interior. South Kingstown hit five 3-pointers as a team on the night, with Danielle French hitting two of them off of the bench as part of her eight-point effort.

Dealing with the height of South Kingstown wasn’t exactly pleasurable when Coventry was on offense, either. With the sudden, yet substantial deficit glairing on the scoreboard, the Oakers began to press on the floor, making ill-advised decisions with the ball such as sending high passes directly into the hands of the Rebels defenders, which then translated into fast-break sprints up the floor for South Kingstown and more groans from the Oaker faithful.

Even when Coventry did break through the South Kingstown press, the final pass was mishandled at times inside the paint, allowing the Rebels to catch up and swarm the Coventry ball handler if the ball wasn’t already sent out of bounds.

In all, Coventry only shot 3-for-18 in the first half, committing 16 turnovers in the process. Elise Fortier, who scored 28 against St. Raphael Academy last Tuesday, was held scoreless in the first half and ended up with just three points.

According to Coventry head coach Chris Luppe, he knew that competing with South Kingstown was going to be even more daunting than originally planned because of the weekend snow storms that had blanketed the state.

Thursday was the last time that the Oakers saw any basketball-related activity since Friday’s game at Toll Gate was snowed out, which explained the noticeable slow first step the normally-quick Coventry team showed in the first half.

“We’re coming off three days of inactivity,” Luppe said. “We haven’t practiced since last Thursday and I as afraid that it was going to be a factor early and it was. We didn’t practice our press break and it showed. We missed a bunch of really easy shots early, which could’ve helped us extend the game to where it would be competitive for a little while. But, that’s going to happen sometimes and you hope to learn from this. Plus, this shows them how important practice is.”

Coventry got off to a good start in the second half, cutting the South Kingstown lead down to 31-20 thanks to an 8-2 run fueled by Tiffany Webster and Hannah Cole. Webster scored nine of her team-high 12 points in the second half, while Cole added in 10.

But, South Kingstown went back to basics in applying the man-to-man pressure, allowing the Oakers to score just three baskets for the final nine minutes of the game.

Coventry hopes to get back into a rhythm this weekend when the Oakers defend their title in the Coventry Credit Union Holiday Basketball Classic, starting Saturday afternoon against Division II’s Pilgrim at 5 p.m.

South Kingstown 57, Coventry 32

SOUTH KINGSTOWN (57): Lawler 7 1-2 15, A. Jones 5 0-0 10, French 3 0-0 8, Morrissey 3 0-0 7, Dufficy 3 0-0 7, Smith 2 0-0 5, R. Jones 1 0-0 3, LeValley 1 0-0 2, Fry 0 0-2 0, totals 25 1-4 57.

COVENTRY (32): Webster 5 1-2 13, Cole 3 2-5 10, Fortier 1 1-2 3, Gagnon 1 0-0 3, Lesnett 0 2-2 2, Shaffer 0 1-2 1, totals 10 7-13 32.

3-pointers: S – French 2, Smith, Dufficy, Morrisey. C – Cole 2, Webster 2.

Halftime: 29-12 South Kingstown.