The Spotsylvania High School girls basketball team was switching up its defense more often than sweaty feet change socks.

The Knights started off in a 1-2-2 zone, went with a little man-to-man, and even threw in a decent amount of full-court press at King George last night.

"Playing against good ballplayers like that," Spotsylvania coach Claude Tyler said, "you've got to make changes. If not, they'll eat you alive."

But it was the improvisational set that his players created that truly left Tyler scratching his head and smiling.

"To be honest, there were several times I couldn't tell what defense we were playing," Tyler said. "I think they were making changes on the court themselves. There were at least three trips where we had three people playing man-to-man and two people playing zone."

If the man-zone combos caught Tyler off guard, they were certainly among the sets that frazzled King George. Spotsylvania a made a third-quarter run, propelled by its scrappy defense, and held off the visiting Foxes 56-46 last night.

"I think we pulled it together well since the last couple of games we were slipping up," Spotsylvania's Lauren Garland said. "We're acting like a family now, like we're supposed to."

King George (10-4 overall, 2-1 district) admittedly was rusty to after missing practice when all after-school activities at the high school were canceled on Monday.

The Foxes stomped back from a seven-point, second-quarter deficit and took a 25-24 lead when Bridgette Harvey fed Candice Gray for a layup with 11 seconds left.

Spotsylvania (14-1, 2-1) answered with a Trish Murphy putback just before the buzzer to take a one-point advantage into the locker room.

Foxes coach Eric Davis wasn't pleased that his team was trailing. But he was optimistic.

He knew his players had played one of their poorer halves of the season. He also knew his star point guard, Tee Gray, had been on the bench, saddled with three fouls.

Davis was hoping he had weathered the storm, and that he could get Gray going again.

"To only be down one," Davis said, "we were lucky."

But Spotsylvania trotted out in the third quarter with even more intensity.

Kurstin Nelms, Garland and Murphy keyed a 7-0 spurt. With their press, the Knights deflected passes, stole dribbles and skidded across the hardwood floor.