Yes, the Class A girls had a pronounced height advantage on the Class B girls heading into this year's Lions All-Star basketball series.

But more important, the Class A squad had the ability to exploit that advantage.

A pair of players from Bismarck - Kylie Messer of St. Mary's and Alex Feeney of Bismarck High - and a pair from Fargo - Shanley's Mara Paulson and Lauren Carew - showed the kind of teamwork that only comes from experience.

Their seamless passing helped carry Class A to a 66-55 win over Class B on Tuesday at the Bismarck Civic Center.

Messer and Paulson were the only two players to hit double figures in scoring for Class A, with 12 and 11, respectively. Feeney added nine and Carew six.

Though Messer and Feeney weren't teammates in high school, they have a history that dates back far longer than that.

"Alex and I, we've playing forever together, since second grade," Messer said. "… We've played together, so we have that chemistry.

"Those Shanley girls - give them credit," Messer said. "They know where to go."

The familiarity of the Class A all-stars allowed them to play with a smoothness Class B couldn't match, especially early on.

Class A took control of the game with an early 8-0 run, moving ahead 12-6. But the Class A stars put the game out of reach (32-15) midway through the half by running off 16 unanswered points.

The only two players to contribute more than two points during that stretch were Mandan's Marlee Finley, who finished the night with nine, and Paulson.

Messer said it was no accident that everybody got involved during the Class Aspurts.

"In practice we always thought, 'Transition, transition, transition,' " she said. "I guess we just worked off of that. If someone gets a steal, you all have to run. That's one of our jobs."

The Class A stars continued to get easy buckets through the midpoint of the second half, pushing the lead to 57-36 with 10:28 to play.

"We worked on that all week, just isolating kids,"Class A coach Greg Amundson of Mandan said. "We didn't just run sets in practice. We worked on skills.

"… Every time they stepped open, we got them the ball. We did a lot of post-to-post passing, which is very difficult for even a tall team to counter that."

The Class B girls did find some things to build on in the final 10 minutes, at one point pulling to within 60-52.

Killdeer's Tana Trotter - who was hampered by foul trouble early - gave her team an inside presence and finished with a team-high 11 points.

But most of Class B's offense came from guards attacking the basket.

Working that formula, LaMoure's Jada Meiklejohn contributed eight points, Grafton's Samantha Baldwin seven and Watford City's Paige Anderson six.

"We made a little run," Class B coach Kent Harding of Bowman County said. "We did get some stops. We got some steals on defense and then turned them into scores. That was our key, to make their big girls run the floor and try to defend our smaller guards on the perimeter."

But Harding said the Class B had some clear areas to work on for tonight's rematch in Fargo.

"We gave them too many shots per possession," Harding said. "We didn't box out very well, gave them two, three, four shots per possession sometimes. We didn't shoot very well from the perimeter, either."

Messer, for one, is expecting a competitive matchup.

"Tomorrow, I guarantee that Class B will definitely come harder," she said. "So then we've just got to go harder."

CLASS B (55):Jada Meiklejohn 3 2-4 8, Samantha Baldwin 3 1-3 7, Kristin Bearstail 1 0-0 2, Steph Brossart 1 0-0 2, Paige Anderson 3 0-0 6, Kristen Killoran 1 2-6 4, Brittany Anderson 1 2-2 4, Valerie Scherr 0 1-2 1, Cristin Haase 2 3-4 8, Tana Trotter 5 1-1 11, Brittany Wirth 1 0-0 2, Samantha Dravland 0 0-1 0. Totals 21 12-23 55.

CLASSA(66):Vittoria Poole 0 0-1 0, Andi Wheeler 3 0-1 6, Mara Paulson 5 1-3 11, Lexi Braun 1 0-0 2, Marlee Finley 3 2-5 9, Sarah Smith 1 1-2 3, Lynn Messer 0 0-0 0, Karli Gilbertson 2 0-0 4, Alex Feeney 3 3-5 9, Lauren Carew 3 0-0 6, Kristen Anstadt 2 0-0 4, Kylie Messer 4 4-5 12. Totals 27 11-22 66.

Halftime:Class A 36, Class B 23.

3-pointers:Class B 1 (Haase 1), Class A 1 (Finley 1). Rebounds:Class B 45 (Meiklejohn 5, Baldwin 5, B. Anderson 5), Class A55 (five with 6). Fouls:Class B 20, Class A 17. Fouled out:Baldwin. Turnovers:Class B 19,Class A 20.