PITSBURG – The Franklin Monroe Lady Jets fell behind in the first quarter 9-4 and then 21-12 at halftime. They would cut the lead to five in the third quarter … but they just couldn’t make enough plays to catch up, dropping a 47-31 decision to National Trail in Cross County Conference action.
National Trail got off to a good start on the play of sophomore guard JaLynn Byrd on two fielders and a triple to put the Blazers up 9-4 in the first quarter.
In the second frame Franklin Monroe handled the pressure a little better and got scoring from four different players, Allyson Masterson, Carrie Baker, Kinsey Goins and Hannah Eley.
The Blazers put 12 points on the board to go up 21-12 at the half.
The Jets made a run at the Blazers and narrowed the lead to 21-15. It was as close as they would get with both teams playing even 12-12 in the third quarter with Trail holding the lead 33-24.
“We had a hard time tonight putting the ball in the hole, and our shooting percentage wasn’t good. When you can’t make shots it’s real difficult to make a run to get back in the game,” Franklin Monroe girls basketball coach Abbey Moore said.
National Trail coach Troy Ferguson wasn’t pleased with how his team performed, especially ball handling.
“We let them hang around by not taking care of the basketball,” Ferguson said. “I told the girls we have to treat every possession like it’s the most important possession.”
In the final stanza senior Miranda Mize stepped forward, scoring six points to hold the Jets at bay on the way to a 47-31 win for National Trail.
“We stepped it up on our defense and got a couple easy baskets … but to their credit (National Trail) they collected themselves and were able to handle the pressure and get the ball down the floor,” Moore said.
“We just came off a couple of good performances for our team, and tonight I didn’t feel like we had that same energy and maybe our legs were a little tired,” Moore concluded.
“We are a very young team, but we expect to play competitive every night out … we just need to get better with our shooting percentage and learn to take quality shots,” Trail’s Coach Ferguson said.
“We got a real nice game tonight from JaLynn Byrd on offense, and defensively Evan Byrd was disruptive as well,” Ferguson said.
JaLynn Byrd led National Trail with 15 points, and Payten Laird added 10 points.
National Trail improved to 3-6 overall and 2-3 in the league.
Franklin Monroe got 10 points from Kinsey Goins and eight points from Hannah Eley to lead the Jets.
Franklin Monroe falls to 0-8 overall and 0-4 in the league and in search of that first win is back in action on Saturday when they host Twin Valley South.
Box score:
Score by quarters:
FM … 04 …08 …12 … 07 – 31
NT … 09 …12 … 12 …14 – 47
Individual scores:
Franklin Monroe (0-2)
Allyson Masterson 2, Danielle McVey 1, Tara Goubeaux 02, Carrie Baker 4, Kinsey Goins 10, Allison Armstrong 4, Hannah Eley 8 – Totals 0-15-1/6 – 31
National Trail (1-1)
P. Laird 10, G. Jones 4, M Mize 8, S. Abner 3, E Byrd 5, B. Grimes 2, J. Byrd 15 – Totals 2-13-15/21 – 47
3-pointers:
NT: 2 (J. Byrd 2)
