When Valley Christian and Page met in girls basketball in the middle of December at Flagstaff High's Holiday Tournament, Page was the better team. That changed Saturday night when the teams met again and in a big way.

Playing on its home floor and in front of larger than usual home crowd, Valley Christian methodically dissected defending Division III champion Page to the tune of a 73-39 victory in a battle of top four D-III schools.

"When we played the first time they were the aggressor," Valley Christian coach Scott Timmer said of Page's 51-37 victory on Dec. 12. "We were bothered a little by the elevation (Flagstaff), and weren't in as good a shape as we are now. We played very well tonight. Played our best third quarter of the season. We're likely to see them again.  It's the last time we play them that will be the most important."

Page (20-4 overall, 10-2 power-ranking games) came to the Valley from a road win Friday night in Snowflake. It had a eight-game winining streak snapped with the loss. The Lady Sand Devils lineup has undergone change in the last couple weeks with one of its top scorers -- Natasha Henry -- no longer on the team. The loss was its worse by margin since November of 2012 when it lost to the St. Mary's juggernaut (35 points) in the then Navajo Generating Station Invitational.

Valley Christian (21-2 overall, 13-1 prg) played its thrird game in as many days and certainly didn't look worse for the wear. Valley Christian made 29 of 49 shots from the field (59 percent). The Lady Trojans suited up 13 players between its varsity and junior varsity and six of those players played the junior varsity game earlier Saturday. The other seven all enjoyed their moments in gradually pulling away from Page in the first half and then leaving the Sand Devils in said dust in the second half. To wit:

Megan Timmer led a balanced Valley Christian attack with 18 points. Timmer zig-zagged across the lane much of the game either ending up with runners or layins or kicking it out for threes for teammates. Timmer sank two threes of her own.

Angie Andreas was next wtih 12 points. Andreas often is a catalyst from three-point range, but this time she was strong inside leading a late surge in the second period with seven of her points. Those  pushed a couple possession game to 32-21 lead at halftime.

The team's lone senior -- Kaitlyn Bellerson - scored 11 points and sank 3 of 4 three-point attempts. Two of the threes came in the third quarter when VC doubled its lead to 56-33. Page turned the ball over six of its first seven possessions in the third period and had 11 miscues total for the quarter. That doubled their turnover count for the game.

Next up was junior Bethany Wolph, who in her fourth game back after rehabbing and recuperating from knee surgery, tallied 10 points. Wolph specializes in shooting threes and made two in the game. The 10 points were her season-high as she's finding minutes off the bench.

VC's second-leading scorer, Anna Gorman, finished with nine points. Gorman seemed to be the focus of Page's defense early on. She scored 12 points in the first meeting, but had a tough time penetrating the lane except for two early baskets. Her normal offensive output was not needed in this one.

Sabriya Smith checked in with six points, a couple of layups in the first quarter when Page was playing at its stingiest. Reserve Hailey Russell chipped in with five points -- enlivening the crowd with all of her points in the third period -- the first a three from deep in the corner during a run that improve VC's lead to 45-23.

Page was led in scoring by Kaitlynn Begay with nine points off the bench. Leading scorer Ashley Dempsey scored seven -- all in the first half. Page returns home for a rematch Tuesday at home against Chinle -- the No. 1 D-III team in the power rankings that beat it soundly late last month.