FAYETTEVILLE — As the season draws closer to an end, the Fayetteville Lady Rockets battled the Peebles Lady Indians last Thursday looking to improve on their position in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference standings.
The game didn’t start out well for Fayetteville defensively. The Lady Indians scored 18 points in the first quarter while the Rockets managed just 12. In the second quarter, Fayetteville switched to a man-to-man approach that worked to perfection. The team limited the Lady Indians to just eight total points over the next 16 minutes of game time, allowing the Lady Rockets to get back into the contest.
Fayetteville only scored six points in the second quarter, but the team out-scored Peebles 13-3 in the third quarter to complete their rally and take a 31-26 lead. While the Lady Indians did manage to out-score the Lady Rockets 13-12 in the final quarter, they could not complete the comeback and fell to Fayetteville 43-39.
The Lady Rockets did not shoot particularly well from the floor. The team shot just 12 of 49 overall and four of 16 from beyond the arc. Instead, Fayetteville made their hay at the free-throw line, hitting 15 of their 18 attempts. Samantha Murphy led her team with 14 points on 4-15 shooting from the field (1-7 from behind the arc) while teammate Cecilia Murphy hit a pair of three-point shots that pushed her to 10 points.
Hannah Weiderhold and Meghan Koch each added six, with Koch pulling in a team-high 11 rebounds as well. Weiderhold’s six points came off the bench for Fayetteville. The rest of the Lady Rocket squad combined for 10 rebounds.
Taylor Cornett scored five points, including a three-point shot while Haley Moore chipped in a pair.
The Lady Rockets have three more games left in the regular season. The team will take a road trip to Leesburg to battle Fairfield on Thursday, Jan. 28 before visiting Manchester on Monday, Feb. 1. Fayetteville closes the regular season with a home game against the Ripley Lady Jays on Thursday, Feb. 4. Match-ups and locations for the girls’ postseason tournament will be determined at 2 p.m. on Jan. 31 and announced shortly thereafter. The regional tournament begins Saturday, Feb. 13.
