LONDON — Two days after watching his Harlan Lady Dragons roll to a 44-point victory over Allen Central, coach Chuck Mitchell knew finding the proper motivation in the rematch could be difficult for his team.

Harlan had much more trouble pulling away the second time around as Allen Central stayed within striking distance until a fourth-quarter surge lifted the Lady Dragons to a 61-35 win in the fifth-place game of the Candy Cane Classic on Wednesday afternoon at South Laurel High School.

“We talked about that on the way down,” Mitchell said of his team’s focus coming into the game. “It’s hard to do that, but it’s an excuse and you have to come out ready to play.”

Harlan won the game with defense, forcing Allen Central into 35 turnovers to help the Lady Dragons get 67 shots from the field compared to only 31 for the Lady Rebels. But with the exception of a couple of good stretches, Harlan did more fouling than defending. Several Lady Dragons spent time on the bench due to foul problems.

“Our best offense is a pretty good defense,” Mitchell said. “We have to get out of reaching. When we start doing that, I threaten them with sitting down. I’ve got two eighth-graders and a ninth-grader who are going to have to play a lot. I think when they understand what they have to do, they’ll be all right. Defensively, we have to get a little better.”

Harlan (7-6) was led by Anne Corey Johnson, who scored 18 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. Sarah Scruggs added 12 points.

Sarah Rife paced Allen Central (0-7) with 11 points.

“We talked about handling their pressure and actually putting pressure on them to get them to turn the ball over,” Allen Central coach Tiffany Hall said. “I think when we came down here we were a little bit scared because we’re so young. At one time, I had two eighth-graders and two freshmen and a senior on the floor.

“I think overall we did a tremendous job. We came down here to get better.”

Harlan raced to an 18-7 after one quarter with the help of 13 Allen Central turnovers. Johnson had three baskets in the period as the Lady Rebels had trouble matching up with the Lady Dragons’ 6-foot-1 senior center.

Allen Central had nine more turnovers in the second quarter but Harlan had 10 as the Lady Rebels cut the deficit to 28-20 at the break. The Harlan reserves saw extensive action in the period as Gabrielle Rehnborg and Kaitlyn Stittums each had baskets and Emily Nantz pulled down five rebounds.

Two baskets by Johnson helped Harlan push its lead to 41-38 at the end of the third quarter.

Scruggs took over in the fourth quarter, hitting four of four shots from the field while crashing the boards and creating havoc on defense, to help Harlan put the game away. Eighth-grade guard Jourdan Ledford also provided a boost on the offensive end with a pair of 3-pointers.

“When (Scruggs) starts finishing under the basket after a steal, we’ll be rolling,” Mitchell said. “She has a lot of energy but isn’t really focused on the offensive end. She sparked us in the fourth quarter.”

Harlan returns to action Saturday in a district clash at Harlan County High School.