OLA -- Dominant performances in the first and fourth quarters lifted Jessieville to a 47-24 victory in the opening game of the 3A-4 district tournament Monday at Two Rivers.
Jessieville (14-13, 5-9), the No. 5 seed, jumped out to a 16-0 lead in the first quarter behind nine points from junior forward Lilliana Fehrenbacher.
"We just wanted to speed up the tempo of the game," said Jessieville head girls' basketball coach Magen Scrivner. "We did not want to get in a half-court setting with them.
"We really just wanted to speed it up, and I felt like we did. We got a lot of deflections. We got some turnovers for points."
Fountain Lake sophomore Karli Bryant stopped the slide when she banked in a 3-pointer for her only points of the game 20 seconds into the second quarter. The Lady Cobras (5-23, 0-14) were the No. 8 seed as the only team in the 3A-4 without a conference victory, but they suffered several close defeats in the final weeks of the season.
Four of Fountain Lake's last five losses were by a combined 10 points. The Lady Cobras trailed by just one point at the start of the fourth quarter in the other loss, 53-45, at home against the No. 6 seed Perryville (12-13, 5-9).
"We turned the ball over and we missed a few easy shots," said Fountain Lake head girls' basketball coach Chris Mungle. "You can't turn the ball against Jessieville. They are going to get out in transition.
"We just dug ourselves a hole. We tried to fight back, but when you are down 16-0, it is hard to come back from it."
Jessieville outscored Fountain Lake, 29-7, in the game's first and fourth quarters. The Lady Cobras were able to make a run in the middle frames.
Junior forward Emoree Martin scored all seven points of her points in the second quarter for Fountain Lake, making 5 of 6 attempts at the free throw line. Her team went into halftime trailing, 25-14.
Both teams struggled to find open looks in the first half of the third quarter. Fehrenbacher scored her final point on a free throw to make it 26-14 with 4:18 on the clock. A 3-pointer by Fountain Lake sophomore Hannah Vaughn cut the margin to nine points at 26-17 with 3:45 remaining in the quarter.
"We kind of got comfortable on defense," Scrivner said. "We got back in a half-court setting.
"I think I called a timeout and told them, 'We've got to speed up the tempo again.' We started to get some more turnovers for layups. Speeding up the game helped us."
A 3-pointer by senior Jaidyn Fortenberry and a layup by fellow senior Amy de Haas off a turnover pushed the lead back out to 14 points. De Haas completed a three-point play in the final seconds for a 34-17 lead to start the fourth quarter.
Sophomore Presley Hamric was the leading scorer for Fountain Lake with eight points. Vaughn finished with six points.
The Lady Lions were 10-for-14, 71.4 percent, at the free throw line until the starters were subbed out in the final minutes. Starting point guard Cherokee Fields was one of four seniors on the roster.
"We've got a really good group coming back," Mungle said. "They are good kids. They work hard.
"They will put in the work in the offseason. Really looking forward to next year."
The matchup was the second of three possible games between the rival schools in a space of five days. Fountain Lake (19-4) knocked off the top-seeded junior Lions (17-6), 52-35, on Saturday in the championship game of the junior high boys' district tournament.
Jessieville's boys (19-7, 10-4) will play tonight at 7:45 p.m. as the No. 3 seed against the winner of Monday night's game between No. 6 seed Atkins (7-16, 3-11) and No. 7 seed Lamar (10-17, 3-11). The winner of tonight's game will qualify for the 3A-2 regional tournament next week at Perryville and meet No. 2 seed Fountain Lake (22-5, 11-3) Wednesday at 7:45 p.m. in the district semifinals.
De Haas led all scorers on Monday with 11 points, Fehrenbacher finished with 10 and Fortenberry added eight. Jessieville hit 5 of 7, 71.4 percent, free throws in the first quarter and finished, 15-for-24, 62.5 percent, at the line.
The Lady Lions advanced to today's quarterfinals against the No. 4 seed, Paris (18-9, 8-6). The Lady Eagles won, 56-53, on Dec. 14 at the Jessieville Sports Arena and earned a 55-37 home victory on their home court on Feb. 1.
"We have talked about it all season long just taking it one game at a time," Scrivner said. "I think tomorrow is going to be a dog fight.
"We've got to play for four quarters with intensity and do the little things right, but it is going to be a dog fight to the end."
Sports on 02/12/2019