By Drew Terhall

Dailyadvocate.com

ARCANUM — Led by their defense, the Franklin Monroe girls basketball team won their fifth game of the season over Fairlawn, 33-27, at home on Jan. 9.

Head coach Tim Barga said with no doubt, the defense stepped up in this game. He also said junior Kyra Barnes did a great job as the man defender.

“We went with a box and one on them. I think that messed them up a lot. That can mess up a lot of teams up if you don’t an offense for it,” Barga said. “Kyra (Barnes) was ready to play tonight on defense. She wanted that competition of going out there and to do that. That helped her out a lot.”

Fairlawn didn’t score their first points of the game until there were 10 seconds left in the first quarter. The defense forced Fairlawn into some outside shots and into some contested shots.

Barnes and sophomore Caydance Nichols both made two three pointers in the first quarter to lead 12-2.

Fairlawn started to make a bit of a comeback as their offense started to get a few buckets against Franklin Monroe.

It was a bump in the road for Franklin Monroe. Barga said he is still looking for the team to play with intensity for all four quarters.

“Second quarter, we slacked off a little bit. Sometimes that really hurts us. We did the same thing the other day against Bradford. We got to keep the intensity the whole game,” Barga said.

Offensively, Franklin Monroe started to drive to the rim and tried to get the ball inside. But, they couldn’t get many shots to fall or they went to the free throw line.

On the season so far, the Lady Jets have shot 49.4% from the line as a team. In the first half, they were 1 for 12 from the line. Barga said the point of emphasis at halftime were on the foul shots.

“We’ve had trouble all year with foul shots, but we’ve made more than that. We should have been ahead by a bunch before that,” Barga said.

Things started to get better for Franklin Monroe. They were able to maintain their six-point lead after the teams matched each other point for point.

The home team went into the final quarter up 25-19. Franklin Monroe started to hit their free throws as they were 6 for 8 from the line in the second half.

With senior Lillie Shellabarger out for the game, the starting five for Franklin Monroe played most of the game. Sophomore Alivia Addis subbed in for a minute or two at a time. She first came into the game with 1:07 left in the first half.

Halftime seemed to give the team new life. The Lady Jets came out with the same intensity from the first quarter and were aggressive going after the ball.

Even with them not being able to fully shut the door on Fairlawn, Franklin Monroe did enough to keep their lead. They got some turnovers and forced Fairlawn into some contested shots.

The team used a few possessions to chew up the clock and they came away with the victory.

Nichols led Franklin Monroe with 13 points. Barnes had 10 points, junior Presley Cox had nine points and senior Olivia Sease had a point.

The team is now 6-6 on the season with a 4-2 WOAC record. The team will next play at Tri-County North on Jan. 11 at 6 p.m.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected]