O'FALLON • When one of the Stock twins is on, St. Joseph's can be a handful.
When both Morgan and Maddie Stock are clicking, the Angels can resemble a steamroller tussling with an aluminum can.
Tuesday night was a steamroller night for the Stock twins and the Angels. Morgan scored a game-high 20 and Maddie chipped in with 18 as St. Joseph's powered past host Fort Zumwalt West 66-39 in a battle of area powers.
The Angels, No. 2 in the STLhighschoolsports.com's large-schools rankings, improved to 21-5 with the win. The Jaguars (No. 4 large schools) fell to 20-5.
"It's fun," Morgan Stock said of being part of a one-two punch with her sister. "I think we all came out today ready to play. We came off some really hard games. We had some little kinks we had to work out."
The Stocks certainly didn't have any issues against the Jaguars. They combined to make 13 of 26 shots from the floor. Maddie made four 3-pointers and Morgan hit two
"It makes me happy (when they're on)," St. Joe's coach Julie Matheny said. "It makes me very happy. It makes grandma and grandpa happy and dad (assistant coach Tim Stock) sometimes happy."
The Angels took control of the game from the start. Helped by a trio of 3-pointers by Maddie Stock, St. Joe's exploded for a 17-9 lead after one quarter.
And that was just the warm-up act. The Angels scored the first 15 points of the second quarter. Kelsey Kingsborough scored inside with 48 seconds left in the first half to help Zumwalt West avoid getting shut out in the second period.
"I was really encouraged with the intensity and the level our kids picked up," Matheny said. "It's that time of year where you either take care of business or call the bus driver."
The Angels, who are 6-0 against Zumwalt West since 2008, harassed the Jaguars wherever they went in the first two quarters. That helped them pick up a number of steals -- they finished the game with 16 -- and take a 32-11 halftime lead.
St. Joe's lead never slipped below 20 points the rest of the way.
"The last time we only beat them by one point," said Angels center Sydney Stipanovich, who scored 13 points and added 11 rebounds. "That really motivated us to take each possession (one) at a time and do our best."
While Matheny was thrilled with the effort, Zumwalt West coach Monica Tritz couldn't have been much more disappointed.
"There wasn't anything good about tonight," Tritz said. "They didn't come ready to play. They had it in their heads from the beginning. It's not up to (assistant coach) Mandee (Krueger) and I. Mandee and I have these girls prepared. If they don't want to play, it's going to be a short playoff run."
Marina Laramie and Kylie Ellison scored 13 apiece to pace the Zumwalt West offense.
