The Purdue duo of Katie Gearlds and Erin Lawless led all scorers in tonight's McDonald's All-American High School girls basketball game, as their West squad cruised past the East 92-72.Gearlds, who was given the game MVP award, scored 17 points, adding three rebounds, four assists and two steals in 23 minutes of play. Gearlds has no personal fouls in the game, but had four turnovers. She shot 6-of-8 from the field, made 3-of-4 shots from the perimeter, and was a perfect 2-for-2 from the freethrow line.
Future Purdue teammate Erin Lawless was close behind with 16 points, six rebounds, three assists and a steal for the West in 20 minutes of play. Lawless was 7-of-14 from the field and 2-of-3 from the perimeter. Lawless did not get to the line herself, but had three personal fouls and two turnovers. Four of Erin's rebounds were offensive.
The East drew first blood with an Ivory Latta layup seven seconds into the game. Little did the East know that they would quickly lose the lead and never regain it. The West countered a minute later with a three-pointer from Lawless, a block by teammate Liz Sherwood, and a rebound and open court assist from Gearlds to Jennifer Hall.
The West led by 13 at the half, later stretching the lead to as high as 34 points on a Gearlds three with ten minutes remaining in the second.
The West also dominated the boards, outrebounding the East 63-41.
The East team placed two in double figures, Ivory Latta and Cori Chambers with 12 points. East center Alison Bales had nine blocked shots in the game.