With a 41-19 halftime lead, the Mehlville Senior High School girls’ basketball team cruised to a 61-44 win over Parkway South in the fifth-place game of the Visitation Academy Christmas Tournament.

“The Parkway South game was pretty similar to the Kirkwood and Metro games earlier in the tournament,” Mehlville head coach Ed Feibig told the Call. “I thought that Parkway South was the quickest of the three team.”

The Panthers (10-1, 2-0 Suburban West) were led by the scoring outburst of senior forward Michelle Senf, who put up 28 points and 18 rebounds against the Patri-ots.

She also had three steals and one blocked shot in the win over Parkway South.

“Michelle was just amazing,” Feibig told the Call. “She came out and knocked down just about everything.”

Mehlville junior forward Laquisha Lewis scored in double figures with a 14-point performance that also included two steals, three rebounds and two blocked shots.

“Laquisha played really good defense and had a couple of steals,” Feibig said. “The downside was that she struggled at the three-point line by going 0-3.”

The Panthers are back in action at 7 p.m. today — Jan. 5 — when they play host to Marquette (7-0, 1-0 Suburban West) in a game that easily could determine the Su-burban West Conference championship.

“This will be a big game for us,” Feibig said. “All of Marquette’s players are 5 feet, 9 inches or taller and we’re not used to that. They’ll play a tough man-to-man defense and try to trap us into a half-court game.”