Lady Lions falter against visiting Eastern Lady Warriors

LEESBURG — The effort was there, according to head coach Chad Hamilton, but it was just an off night for the host Fairfield Lady Lions, falling to the Eastern Brown Lady Warriors in Southern Hills Athletic Conference action.

This was the third game this week for FHS, where they won one and lost two, including the loss on Thursday night by a 43-28 final score at Grandle Gymnasium.

"I can't fault the effort by the girls," Hamilton said. "At times our defense was good, but Eastern is very good at the low post game, and we struggled to deal with it defensively.

"They (EB) are a very good team and play good defense, and we struggled on offense again, having a bad shooting night. When you give up 43 points, that's going to win a lot of games, but not if you struggle like we did (Thursday), and that's a credit to their defense."

The first half, neither team scored much, mostly in the first quarter where both teams combined for just nine points, as EB led, 5-4 after the opening eight minutes.

In the first where Justice Hattan and Lydia Sowders scored the lone FHS points, the second frame wasn't much kinder to the Lady Lions with them being outscored, 19-5, leading to a halftime deficit of 24-9.

In the first four minutes of the second quarter, EB had an 5-0 run against FHS, and they held the Lady Lions without a field goal in the quarter, as all five FHS points in the second came via free throws.

With EB taking a 13-6 lead following a 3-pointer by Abby Fultz, that turned into a 10-0 run and eventually added up to a 15-2 run from the start of the second until the quarter had around 3:00 left on the clock. Fultz led EB with 13 points.

That run led to a 20-6 Lady Warriors advantage, but that string of scoring was snapped by a free throw from Fairfield's Blake Adams and two free throws by Carly Arnold. EB ended the first half with four more points for the 15-point advantage.

Fairfield scored its first field goal since the 1:40 mark of the first with Kaitlin Evans scoring two points on a layup with 5:36 left in the third. Evans led FHS with 13 points.

Eastern Brown eventually built a 30-11 lead until Grace Shope sank a jumper with 3:14 left in the third, and later in the third, Haley Bobb made two free throws for FHS, but the hosts still trailed by 18 points. Shope and Bobb each finished the game with four points.

With the Lady Warriors leading 39-17 after three frames, the Lady Lions did win the final frame at 11-4. Evans scored the first seven points of the final quarter. Bobb and Shope also scored points in the fourth. EB ended the game by keeping possession of the ball for the final 45 seconds.

FHS finished the game with 12 turnovers.

Before the game, Jerry Haag Motors donated $1,500 to the Fairfield Athletic Department as part of a fundraiser the dealership held.