RIMERSBURG - Everywhere the Sheffield girls basketball team turned, there they were.

Streaks of gold flashed in front of them. Hands snapped like the hungry jaws of sharks at the basketball, poking and pulling it away from their clutches.

It was all part of the plan for Union: press without mercy.

That strategy worked well as the Golden Damsels forced 32 turnovers on the way to an 82-43 win over Sheffield in the District 9 Class A quarterfinals at Union High School Thursday.

"We wanted them to feel like there were seven Union girls on the floor," said Damsels coach Josh Meeker. "It looked like there was at times."

After a relatively slow start and a 10-8 lead, the Damsels (22-2) went on one of many of their prodigious runs, outscoring the shell-shocked Wolverines 20-2 to take a 20-point lead.

Union led 51-23 at the half and 74-34 at the end of three quarters. Only the mercy rule kept the Damsels from challenging the century mark.

"They scored on eight of our turnovers in the first quarter," said Sheffield coach Barb Smith. "That's 16 points right there."

Union's plan always is to ramp up the pressure and to play fast-paced basketball. The Damsels took that to a whole new level against Sheffield (15-10).

Meeker devised the attack after watching Sheffield slog out a win over Clarion-Limestone in the first round of the district playoffs.

When C-L did press Sheffield, the Wolverines had problems, Meeker observed.

"When C-L put pressure on them, they made mistakes," Meeker said. "When we watched the tape, it wasn't a fast-paced game and they looked like they were tired. I told my assistant coach (Jeff Shirey) they better put on their running shoes. We're just going to run up and down the floor."

Union can run so much because of its depth.

The Damsels played all 12 varsity players who dressed. At times, Meeker subbed in four players at a time, giving his rotation a hockey-line feel.It showed up in the scorebook. Ten players scored for Union and seven of them popped in seven or more points each.Bethany Koch paced the team with 15 points - all scored in the first half. Andrea Mortimer (11), Janele Divins (11) and Molly Scott (10) also scored in the double digits."They are a very well-coached team and very deep team," Smith said. "We only go six or seven deep. We're not able to keep up with that."Smith was dismayed about her team's impatience more than the final score."When we broke their press, we made one pass and then took a shot," Smith said. "That's when we have an opportunity to rest, and we didn't take it."The balanced scoring always makes Meeker smile. The third-year coach also hopes it makes teams preparing to play Union scratch their heads while wondering whom to stop."We hope when they look in the paper and don't see someone dropping in 30, but see a bunch of 10s, eights and sevens, that they won't know who to key on."Smith said there is no one on Union to key on."There is no drop off," Smith said.Union got a boost Monday during a scrimmage with District 9 Class AA second seed Moniteau. In that scrimmage, the Damsels played very well and that carried over against Sheffield, Meeker said."We went down there and we didn't press at all," Meeker said. "And we hit them hard. It was a nice boost for us."Union will play Clarion, a 55-37 winner over DuBois Central Catholic,at a site and time to be determined.SHEFFIELD 43Chelsea Dunn 2-10 0-0 5, Erin Skelly 0-7 2-2 2, Soleena Bonavita 1-5 1-2 3, Emily Fitch 3-4 2-2 8, Jessica Wagner 10-20 3-4 23, Leah Showers 0-3 0-0 0, Ashley Overbeck 1-1 0-0 2, Bele'n Castillo 0-0 0-0 0, Sarah Skelly 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 17-53 8-10 43UNION 82Andrea Mortimer 3-13 5-6 11, Bethany Koch 6-8 3-4 15, Tiffany Corle 3-7 1-2 7, Molly Scott 4-8 0-0 10, Janele Divins 5-9 0-0 11, Courtney Horner 3-5 2-2 8, Nikki Davis 3-7 0-0 6, Mackenzie Shirey 3-4 3-3 9, Denyelle Painter 1-5 0-0 2, Kayla Hepler 1-5 0-0 3, Allison Toven 0-1 0-0 0, Colleen Logue 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 32-73 14-17 823-point goals:Dunn, Scott 2, Divins, Hepler