2nd half gets away from Lady Lions in loss

LEESBURG — If there was ever a game where there was a vast difference from the first half to the second half, that would have been witnessed on Monday night at Fairfield High School, as the Lady Lions played an excellent first half, but the final half just got away.

All that went right for Fairfield against visiting Southeastern at Grandle Gymnasium Monday night didn’t occur much in the third and fourth frames, as a two-point deficit after two quarters turned into a 65-46 loss to the Lady Panthers in non-conference play.

This was Fairfield’s first game since Saturday, Dec. 19, a nine-day break in between games.

“The first half, our defensive game plan worked about as well as it could,” FHS head coach Chad Hamilton said. “Even though we were down by two, I was very pleased by the way we played defensively in the first half.”

For the Lady Lions in the first two quarters, they were led by sophomore Grace Shope, who scored 21 of her 24 points in those quarters, including a 14-point first frame and seven more points in the second frame, as FHS trailed 28-26 at halftime.

Shope tallied three 3-pointers in the first half, two in the second frame and one in the first quarter. In the second half, she was held to three points as Southeastern turned the tables and focused on defending Shope in the final 16 minutes of play.

The sophomore finished 7-of-10 from the free-throw line in the loss.

“Offensively, in the first half, Grace was pretty much unstoppable,” Hamilton told The Highland County Press. “She played a great first half, but we have to have more than just one person step up. I know that’s tough in the first half because she had the ball most of the time, but in the long run, we have to have more than one step up.”

As for that first quarter, the Lady Lions only trailed after Southeastern made the first basket of the game with 7:04 on the clock. Trinity Huff answered for FHS with the Lady Lions’ first points of the game at the 6:00 mark of the opening quarter.

From there, Shope sank a 3-pointer to push FHS ahead 5-2, and she followed that with a long-range jumper in the non-conference contest with 4:54 left on the scoreboard. FHS gained an 8-2 advantage with a free throw by Carly Arnold, then an eight-point advantage with 3:21 on the clock as Shope scored two points in the paint.

SE broke up what was a 10-0 run by FHS with a layup at the :45 mark of the first, but Shope came back with the rest of the Lady Lions scoring in the first frame including another layup, then making 3-of-4 free throws following a technical foul on the Lady Panthers with 2:05 left in the first.

After five straight points by SE, Shope pushed FHS ahead by six points late in the first frame, only to see the visitors score the final two points of the first for what was a FHS advantage of 17-13.

In the second frame, Shope scored seven of the Lady Lions’ nine points. Abigail Newkirk scored the other two points at the 1:38 mark of the second on a layup, which at the time tied the score at 25-25, but once the second frame was complete, FHS trailed by just two points at 28-26, as they were outscored in the second, 15-9.

The second half was all Lady Panthers, as they took complete control of every aspect of the game, outscoring FHS, 15-6 in the third and 22-14 in the fourth.

Macie Pauley sank a 3-pointer for FHS with 7:20 left in the third, while the rest of the third-quarter scoring for the Lady Lions came from Blake Adams (two free throws) and Shope (one free throw). In the fourth, scoring points for the Lady Lions were Newkirk, Shope, Lauren Arnold, Alexis Tate, Olivia Bobb and Adams.

Newkirk finished with seven points in the game for FHS, their second-leading scorer in the game. For the game, the Lady Lions were 16-of-28 from the free-throw line, and SE went 12-of-15.

Unofficially, Shope and Adams led FHS with seven rebounds each, and Carly Arnold had six boards.

SE was led in scoring by Ella Skeens with 18 points, McKinley Mitten with 11 points and Audrie Wheeler and Rachel Collins with 10 points apiece.

“The second half got away in a hurry,” Hamilton said. “Southeastern has so many players who are quick, and Skeens has a pull-up jump shot that not many girls have as she can create her own shots.

“It was certainly a tale of two halves, and if we can just put four quarters together, we’ll be all right.”

The Lady Lions will play again on Jan. 4 at Ripley in Southern Hills Athletic Conference play, giving FHS a break of seven days.