PEABODY – All the elements were in place for a total disaster for the English girls basketball team Monday night at the Peabody gym.The Lady Bulldogs had been badly outplayed in the first half and Peabody – though not exactly hitting on all cylinders itself – had a comfortable 15-point lead, and there really wasn’t any reason to think any of that would change in the final two quarters.But change it did. Radically. So much so that if you didn’t know better, you’d have sworn the teams switched uniforms at halftime.Where English only scored 11 points in the first 16 minutes, the Tanners could only muster 13 in the second half.The difference? English completely reversed itself offensively, pouring in 38 points in the final two quarters. And that was good enough for a 49-39 win. And if you’re looking for statements, that was a pretty loud one right there.Click here for a photo gallery.”They’re Lynn English,” said Peabody coach Jane Heil. “They’re defending league champions. They have some great athletes on the team, and they absolutely stepped up the intensity.”And Peabody did not.”If we’d just played the way we played in the first half, we’d have neutralized them,” Heil said. “But they stepped up the intensity and it caused us to panic.”English point guard Jenicia Duggins was the main catalyst here. The lightning-quick senior had only six points in the first half, but exploded for 17 in the final two periods to finish with 23. She was especially deadly not only in getting to the foul line, but in making her free throws, finishing up with nine from behind the stripe.”She just took over the game,” said English coach Fred Hogan.Hogan thought his team came out sluggish in the first half, and told the Bulldogs, at halftime, to merely play their game.”Peabody did to us what we usually do to our opponents,” Hogan said. “They made us bend to their game. We were out of control. I just told them to settle down and play some offense, and that things would be OK. And we almost stole the game right there at the end of the third quarter.”That third period was definitely the key. English (3-0) outscored the Tanners, 18-4, thanks to some intense full-court defense that resulted in numerous steals. Where English had been settling for some outrageous outside shots in the first half, the Lady Bulldogs began taking it to the hoop ? and getting fouled. They took a 26-11 halftime deficit and reduced it to one (30-29) by the end of the quarter.”We were still missing a lot of shots, but we were close,” Hogan said.English finally grabbed the lead with 7:34 left in the game on a Duggins jumper, but Peabody staged a momentary resurgence, as Ginny Fleming scored a bucket and then Hayley Dowd hit a free throw. That gave the Tanners a two-point lead.Miranda Hogan got that back in a hurry, sinking a three-pointer from the corner, but Dowd tied it again at 34 with another freebie. And that was the last point Peabody scored until the outcome was close to being academic.Olivia Dupree hit a couple of foul shots and Miranda Hogan came back for another three to make it 39-34. Duggins followed with two foul shots and Lashaunda Hogan came through with a whirling runner with 1:36 to go and it was 43-34.Peabody had its chances, but missed several free throws down the stretch. Carissa Milley kept things interesting by scoring five points (a basket and then a three) in the last minute, but Duggins continued to hit her foul shots ? and then knocked one in at the buzzer to close out the game emphatically.Brittany LeFavre was the high scorer for Peabody with 12, and Brandeis-bound Janelle Rodriguez chipped in with eight.