PEDRO — It was a night of first for the Chesapeake Lady Panthers and their coach.

Using a strong defensive effort, the Lady Panthers beat the Rock Hill Redwomen 46-32 Thursday to give coach Sammy Gue his first career victory.

Chesapeake improved to 1-2 on the season and 1-0 in the Ohio Valley Conference. Rock Hill slipped to 1-2 overall and 0-1 in the league.

“We didn’t play great, but we played really hard. We played really good defense,” said Gue.

“Kimmie Bennett did a really good job on the boards and Courtney Heffner and Allison Chapman did a great job defensively.”

Bennett also led the Lady Panthers with a game-high 17 points. Sarah Mayo scored 10 points with Heffner and Rachel Harris adding six points each.

“It was a good win for us. We needed that,” said Gue.

Ashlee Thacker scored 10 points to pace the Redwomen. Brooke Long had five points before fouling out.

The game started slow as Chesapeake took an 8-6 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Harris had five of her six points in the second quarter as Chesapeake pulled away to 23-13 halftime lead.

Bennett scored nine of her points in the second half as Chesapeake began to get some separation by taking a 33-20 lead at the end of the third quarter.

On Monday, Rock Hill visits Vinton County and Chesapeake hosts Ohio Valley Christian in a pair of non-league games.