The old saying that defense leads to offense was on full display at the Bollinger Athletic Complex on Thursday.

Class A No. 8 Trinity Lutheran (17-4) forced 35 South Decatur (2-17) turnovers to come away with a 61-34 win on senior night.

Trinity’s full-court press stifled the Cougars’ offense in the opening eight minutes of play.

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South Decatur turned the ball over 12 times in the first quarter and 18 times total in the first half.

Trinity opened the game on a 6-2 run before busting the game open with a 12-0 scoring streak.

Up 6-4, Savannah Harweger scored six points, Abby Hackman had four and Sydney Jaynes added a basket to put Trinity up 18-4 with 44 ticks on the clock.

A score from the Cougars’ Hannah Ballard cut the visitors’ deficit to 18-6 by the buzzer.

Jaynes went on a self-imposed 5-1 run from 4:14 to 3:06 in the second quarter to put the Cougars up 26-10.

A buzzer-beating 3-pointer in the left corner by Jodi Goecker propelled Trinity to a 30-14 advantage at intermission.

Out of the break, Trinity outscored the Cougars 8-2 by the 3:15-mark. Goecker had four points in the stretch.

Baskets by Hackman and Savanna Setty extended Trinity’s advantage to 42-24 at the end of 24 minutes of play.

Trinity put the game out of reach by scoring 10 straight in a two-minute span to lead 54-27 with 5:05 left in the game. Hackman wrecked havoc inside during the spree, scoring six points.

The Cougars were able to dribble out the clock the rest of the way to secure the victory.

Hackman led the Cougars with 16 points, Jaynes added 14 — to go along with eight blocks — and Harweger scored 13.

“We knew that we would be able to get a lot of high-low action,” Trinity coach Mike Lang said. “We worked on turning and squaring up to the basket. It was just a great team effort. Every person that stepped on the floor contributed.”

Trinity had 16 turnovers to the Cougars’ 35 errors.

Prior to the game, Setty, Goecker, Hackman and Piper Acton were honored for senior night.

“ These kids are your family,” Lang said. “I’m proud of them tonight. It’s all about the kids. This was a night they won’t forget for a long time. We’re glad to have a positive impact on them.”