The Fayetteville Lady Rockets are halfway through their four-game road trip to start the season and so far, so good.

Nearly a week after knocking off the West Union Lady Dragons, Fayettevile continued their winning ways against the Hillsboro Lady Indians, travelling north for a convincing 62-38 victory.

Fayetteville started the contest on fire, tallying 18 points in the first quarter. However, the Lady Rockets cooled off big-time in the second, scoring just six points. Luckily, the defense was solid in both quarters and the team carried a 24-14 lead into halftime.

The second half was all Fayetteville, as the team scored 38 of their 62 points in the final 16 minutes and held the Lady Indains to just 24 points, majority of which came in the fourth quarter as the game was already out of hand.

Samantha Murphy was one of several players who set career-highs in the game. She tallied a personal-best 34 points and tied her career-high by draining five three-pointers in the contest. She also hit five of her six free-throws.

Cecilia Murphy set a career high with nine rebounds and senior Megan Koch tallied a career-best 13. Hayley Moore and Hannah Wiederhold also set personal bests in boards, as each pulled down seven. Finally, Taylor Cornett set highs in points with 12 and rebounds with 8.

While the team’s offensive output was impressive, head coach Toby Sheets said his team’s defense is what they are excelling at so far.

“We’re playing solid defense,” Sheets said. “All through the preseason, a big part of our concentration has been on finding a few things we can do well. With such a young group, it has been like starting all over again. We’ve found something we can do well: play defense.”

The Lady Rockets will get another chance to show off their defensive prowess in the team’s final road game of the aforementioned road swing Monday, December 7 at 7:30 p.m. as the team travels to Whiteoak for a Southern Hills Athletic Conference contest. The team’s first home match of the 2015-2016 season takes place Thursday, December 10 against North Adams at 7:30 p.m.

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Fayetteville beats Hillsboro 62-38

By Garth Shanklin

gshanklin@civitasmedia.com

Reach Garth Shanklin at 937-387-6161 or follow him on Twitter @GNDShanklin.