The Air Academy girls’ basketball players made a lot of noise in the locker room. Then they made a lot of noise on the court.

Fueled by a pregame pump-up that included banging on lockers, the host Kadets used a suffocating full-court press and 29-point first quarter to turn a 5A Metro rivalry game with Palmer into a 58-33 rout Tuesday night.

Check out more photos from the game.

“We started off with a bunch of momentum,” Kadets senior Brittany Aschom said. “We just felt we needed to take it to them and put our name out in the conference and show who we are.”

Kate Louthan’s layup 10 seconds into the game got the Pikes Peak 5A-4A No. 2 Kadets going. Then three straight turnovers by No. 3 Palmer opened the floodgates, prompting coach Dave Shackelford to remove his starting five just more than 2 minutes into the game.

Click here to watch a video from the game.

“We just didn’t come out with the right intensity I thought we should have,” Shackelford said. “The first five just didn’t bring it for some reason. I don’t know what it was. It’s frustrating for me, so I decided to clear the bench.”

Things didn’t improve much for the Terrors (8-2, 2-2).

The Kadets (9-1, 3-0), who had eight players score in the opening quarter, went up 10-0, 12-4 and 20-6. And if that weren’t enough, they scored four points on back-to-back steals in the final minute and Sarah Schweiss, who had eight points in the quarter, nailed a 3-pointer with 5 seconds left for a 29-6 advantage, leaving little doubt of the outcome.

Palmer did find some rhythm in the third. Mary Miller scored six of her team’s eight points in the quarter. But it wasn’t enough to put a dent in the Kadets’ lead. Miller had a team-high nine points.

Schweiss finished with 11 points and Miranda Beal added nine for the Kadets.

“I give Air Academy credit,” Shackelford said. “They had their focus. They came out, they took it to us from the beginning. We knew they would, we just didn’t adjust.”

Air Academy’s Leigh Hamilton took a shot as Palmer’s Sarah Safranek defended. Photo by BRYAN OLLER, THE GAZETTE