Lady Lions open season with loss at Lady 'Cats Classic
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
BAINBRIDGE — The Fairfield Lady Lions were unable to overcome a slow start scoring due to turnovers and unable to keep up with the quickness of Vinton County.
All of that morphed into a season-opening 56-40 loss Friday evening at the eighth annual Lady 'Cats Classic at Paint Valley High School.
Heather Cox was the Team MVP in the loss for FHS as she continued her trend from last season of averaging double-doubles, starting her senior season with a game-high 23 points and 17 rebounds.
Kaitlin Evans followed with 10 points, along with six assists and three steals. Justice Hattan had three points and six rebounds in the loss.
[[In-content Ad]]But it all came back to the team aspect of the game for the Lady Lions, as they unofficially committed 25 turnovers.
"Every time we started to make a run, the same stuff came back to bite us," first-year head coach Chad Hamilton said. "We made poor decisions with our passing, and we have to improve on that if we want to improve our record from last year.
"It has to be fixed."
The problems in the season opener were evident early on when the Lady Vikings (1-0) led 19-7 at the conclusion of the first quarter.
For VC, they had three players end with double-digit scoring, including Megan Dixon (their Team MVP) with 16 points. Also on that list were Xan Hale with 11 and Michaela Puckett with 10.
Evans was first to score points in the game, with the junior making a basket while being fouled. She made the free throw, and the Lady Lions led by a 3-0 score with 7:10 left in the opening quarter.
FHS didn't score again until the 1:34 mark of the first when Cox made her first points of the game with a turnaround bucket, as FHS now trailed by an 11-5 score, breaking a string of 11 unanswered points by VC, who were the home team.
VC answered the two-point basket with a 3-pointer from Xan Hale as VC eventually ended the first with a 8-2 run, including another 3-pointer, this time by Megan Dixon and fast break points by Jalen Hale to end the first.
"I hope this was just a little bit of being first-game jitters," Hamilton said. "We have to take the lessons learned from this game and improve."
The Lady Vikings continued to control the pace of the game by eventually taking a 24-9 advantage with 5:21 left in the half. Sprinkled in with the scoring of VC were two points from Evans, as the junior ended the first half with eight points, as did Cox.
Also scoring points in the second frame was Hattan as FHS ended the second quarter with the final four points of the first half.
Though FHS was first to score in the third frame, scoring 10 points in the third, they eventually trailed by a 46-28 score after eight more minutes of play.
Cox, Evans and freshman Carly Arnold combined for the 10 points in the quarter, including a jumper from Arnold around the four-minute mark of the third for her first varsity points.
The third frame was ended with a three-point play from Cox.
For the final eight minutes, Cox had her best quarter, scoring nine of her 23 points, including a run of six points in the final 1:45 of the opener. Also scoring for FHS in the fourth were Hattan and senior Shelby Smithson, who missed last season with a torn ACL.
FHS finished 8-of-18 from the free-throw line.
The Lady Lions are back on the court, Monday as they are set to face the East Clinton Lady Astros in non-league play.
All of that morphed into a season-opening 56-40 loss Friday evening at the eighth annual Lady 'Cats Classic at Paint Valley High School.
Heather Cox was the Team MVP in the loss for FHS as she continued her trend from last season of averaging double-doubles, starting her senior season with a game-high 23 points and 17 rebounds.
Kaitlin Evans followed with 10 points, along with six assists and three steals. Justice Hattan had three points and six rebounds in the loss.
[[In-content Ad]]But it all came back to the team aspect of the game for the Lady Lions, as they unofficially committed 25 turnovers.
"Every time we started to make a run, the same stuff came back to bite us," first-year head coach Chad Hamilton said. "We made poor decisions with our passing, and we have to improve on that if we want to improve our record from last year.
"It has to be fixed."
The problems in the season opener were evident early on when the Lady Vikings (1-0) led 19-7 at the conclusion of the first quarter.
For VC, they had three players end with double-digit scoring, including Megan Dixon (their Team MVP) with 16 points. Also on that list were Xan Hale with 11 and Michaela Puckett with 10.
Evans was first to score points in the game, with the junior making a basket while being fouled. She made the free throw, and the Lady Lions led by a 3-0 score with 7:10 left in the opening quarter.
FHS didn't score again until the 1:34 mark of the first when Cox made her first points of the game with a turnaround bucket, as FHS now trailed by an 11-5 score, breaking a string of 11 unanswered points by VC, who were the home team.
VC answered the two-point basket with a 3-pointer from Xan Hale as VC eventually ended the first with a 8-2 run, including another 3-pointer, this time by Megan Dixon and fast break points by Jalen Hale to end the first.
"I hope this was just a little bit of being first-game jitters," Hamilton said. "We have to take the lessons learned from this game and improve."
The Lady Vikings continued to control the pace of the game by eventually taking a 24-9 advantage with 5:21 left in the half. Sprinkled in with the scoring of VC were two points from Evans, as the junior ended the first half with eight points, as did Cox.
Also scoring points in the second frame was Hattan as FHS ended the second quarter with the final four points of the first half.
Though FHS was first to score in the third frame, scoring 10 points in the third, they eventually trailed by a 46-28 score after eight more minutes of play.
Cox, Evans and freshman Carly Arnold combined for the 10 points in the quarter, including a jumper from Arnold around the four-minute mark of the third for her first varsity points.
The third frame was ended with a three-point play from Cox.
For the final eight minutes, Cox had her best quarter, scoring nine of her 23 points, including a run of six points in the final 1:45 of the opener. Also scoring for FHS in the fourth were Hattan and senior Shelby Smithson, who missed last season with a torn ACL.
FHS finished 8-of-18 from the free-throw line.
The Lady Lions are back on the court, Monday as they are set to face the East Clinton Lady Astros in non-league play.