FL jr. girls double-up DeQueen

FOUNTAIN LAKE -- Fountain Lake used a tough defense to hold DeQueen to under 20 points as the junior Lady Cobras took a 30-15 win Friday night at Sammy Lambert Court at Irvin J. Bass Gymnasium.

DeQueen (3-8, 2-3 4A-7) got on the board first, but Paige Davis drained a 3-pointer before hitting teammate Eden East under the basket for a 5-2 Fountain Lake lead in the opening minutes. The junior Lady Cobras (9-3, 3-2) held the visiting team to just one more bucket in the quarter, taking a 6-4 lead en route to a 14-6 halftime edge.

"This bunch right here, we go out and play hard every night," said Fountain Lake head coach Michael Blees. "They've learned how to play defense. Once they get the offensive end of the floor down, once we get them to understand they don't have to go 90 miles an hour on offense to match their defensive intensity, that's going to be a really good group in the future here."

Trailing by 8 to start the second half, DeQueen opened the third with a steal and layup from Dayton Forte, but East found Davis in transition to keep the momentum. Davis sank another 3-pointer before passing inside to East for a 3-point play to stretch out to a 21-9 lead.

With a 23-11 lead going into the final six minutes, Fountain Lake held the junior Lady Leopards to just 4 more points. Mary Drakes banged in a trey entering the final minute, and Lainey Mungle capped the match by sinking two from the free throw line for the win.

"They played extremely hard defensively," Blees said. "Because of how hard they played defensively, it made our offense run much smoother, a lot better. ... I mean, I couldn't be prouder of the hustle and the effort they gave on the defensive end of the floor. We talked a little bit at halftime that we're playing 90 miles an hour on defense, which is great, but we had a few times that we were trying to play 90 miles an hour on offense, and that's not so great because it leads to a lot of mistakes. But this is a good group of girls and they work hard and we're just looking to, you know, build a future with them."

DeQueen head coach Logan Lindly said he felt his team played hard despite the loss.

"We're still learning, and it's a process, and we're going through it, but I'm proud of them," he said. "They never give up, which is kind of our thing. We play hard all the time, and it's just a learning curve, and we'll get ther e. I'm proud of them, so we've just got to play better. Definitely got to get better. They're good kids, and they want to learn, so it motivates us to get in the gym and get better every day."

East led the junior Lady Cobras with 11 points, four steals and three rebounds. Davis tallied 10 points, three rebounds, three assists and a block, Drakes had 7 points, four rebounds, three steals, a block and an assist, Mungle had 2 points, five rebounds, two steals and an assist and Katie Dillinger added two steals, two rebounds and an assist.

Madison Whitemore led the junior Lady Leopards with 6 points, three rebounds and a steal. Dayton Forte had 3 points, three rebounds and three steals while Laura May Harp, McKenzie Pearce and Penelope Sims each had 2 points with Harp adding a steal and an assist and Pearce a rebound and a steal.

• DeQueen won the seventh-grade girls game 18-11.

The seventh-grade Lady Leopards jumped out to a 6-0 lead before Lyla Chaney got Fountain Lake on the board with an outside jumper at the 5 minute mark of the first half. DeQueen's Kate Lindsey answered back with a fast break layup before Candis Graves answered with a steal and layup to pull within 8-4. A putback by Ellie Morphew gave DeQueen a 10-4 lead at the break.

Alexis Safley led the Lady Cobras back into the game to start the second half, cutting the deficit to 1. Emma Chambers went on to hit the final buckets for the Lady Leopards in the closing minutes to secure the win.

Chambers led De Queen with 10 points, two rebounds and an assist. Landry Liggin, Lindsey, Morphew and Gwen Bradshaw each put up 2 points with Lindsey adding two steals, two rebounds and an assist, Morphew three rebounds with one steal, Liggin two rebounds and one assist and Bradshaw three rebounds.

Safley had 5 points, four rebounds and a block for Fountain Lake while Allie Overton, Graves and Chaney put up 2 points apiece. Overton added three rebounds with three steals and Graves had two rebounds with one steal.

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