ROUGHEDGE — The Parkwood High girls basketball team hasn’t been tested much this season, and the Rebels weren’t in Wednesday’s home win over Monroe.

Parkwood rolled to a 65-23 victory, improving to 5-0 as Union County’s only unbeaten girls team.

The Rebels have outscored their five opponents by an average score of 61.4 to 33.2, and PHS coach Jamel McGee believes defense has been the biggest key to his team’s hot start.

Parkwood has held three of its opponents to 31 points or less.

“We try to set the tone defensively,” said McGee. “We try to turn our defense into offense, and we want to create turnovers and really just try to take the ball from the other team. That’s the type of mentality we have.”

The Rebels recorded 19 steals on Wednesday, including four apiece by Morgan and Michelle Brown, who are both returning starters in the backcourt.

McGee considers Michelle his top defender, and she proved it on Wednesday by holding Monroe leading scorer Dequishea McCain to just two points.

“Michelle’s quick, athletic and she can play a long time, so we try to get her on top of our defenses and harass the ball-handler,” said McGee. “She does a really good job of that and we try to utilize her any time we can.”

Morgan and Michelle are also Parkwood’s top two returning scorers from last year. Morgan scored a game-high 17 points to go along with six assists and four rebounds on Wednesday, while Michelle dropped 15 points and grabbed five rebounds.

Morgan is averaging 15.6 points per game while Michelle is just behind at 15.5 ppg.

McGee has also been pleased with the play of senior center Kate Howie, who didn’t play last season after starting as a sophomore.

Howie scored just three points on Wednesday, but pulled down four rebounds and recorded two blocks.

“Morgan and Michelle are learning how to play better together, especially in the half-court,” said McGee. “They are looking for one another and being aggressive off the dribble, so we know what we’ve got with that. Now we’re starting to work Kate in there and get some post play established, so we’ve just got to keep working and getting better.”

Lydia Griffin scored nine points and grabbed eight rebounds for Monroe, which plays at home against North Stanly on Friday.

Parkwood plays at home against Piedmont on Monday.