Fairfield high school Lady Eagles varsity cagers won a game and lost two in competition at the Whataburger Tournament in Fort Worth.

This was the first year that girls’ basketball teams have played the tourney.

The Lady Eagles opened against Princeton and dropped a close 51-54 decision. A box score of the game was not available.

“They played the style we like, straight man-toman, and we do better with that,” Fairfield head coach Stephen Heers says.

Second round action pitted Fairfield against Tuscola Jim Ned and a zone defensive scheme against which the coach says the team struggles.

The Lady Eagles fell behind 10-15 the first period and were held to nine points the second period to trail 19-27 at the half.

Fairfield tallied 28 points the second half and gave up 36 to come up short in a 47-63 contest.

“We didn’t handle Jim Ned’s trapping ability very well. They really did it well and kept their thumb on us,” Heers reports.

Reaching double digits with 11 points was senior post Kiresten Cox. She was joined in double digits by junior post Courtney Morton, 10 points.

Also scoring were: Joye McElroy, 9; Mia Mayo, 6; Jasmine Griffin, 6; Jermaca Brown, 2; Barvion Wyatt, 2; and Kathleen Chappell, 10.

The Lady Eagles shot just 44 percent from the free throw line, making 11 of 25 attempts, but Miss McElroy connected on five of six free throws.

Jim Ned was led by Meagan O’Dell who scored 17 points, 15 of them from the free throw line.

In the third tourney game, the Lady Eagles faced a young Bishop Dunne team and had better results, winning 77-36.

Fairfield trailed 9-16 the first period, then turned up the heat for 26 points in the second period to take a 35-22 edge into intermission.

The Lady Eagles outscored their opponents 18-5 in the third period and 24-9 in the final stanza.

Reaching double digits were Miss McElroy, 19 points with a pair of treys, and Miss Morton, 15 points.

Also scoring were: Sarah Linton, 9; Mayo, 8; Griffin, 9; Wyatt, 7; Cox, 6; Olivia Gallegos, 2; Brown, 1; and Chappell, 1.

Fairfield shot 48 percent from the charity stripe, making 20 of 41 attempts.

Knocking down three treys was Miss Linton, and Misses Mayo and McElroy hit two each from long distance.

Brock, the top ranked team in Class AA, won the tourney and Peaster, ranked fourth in AA, placed second. Third place went to Fort Worth Nolan.

Fairfield snuck in a game Saturday against Waco Connally as they prepare for the start of the District 20-AAA season.

The Lady Eagles started cold and trailed the Cadettes 10-12 the first period, then held Connally to just five second period points to take a 24-17 lead at half-time.

The FHS quintet tallied seven points in each of the second half periods and gave up 26 points to drop a 38-43 decision.

“You are not going to beat anybody shooting as bad as we are,” Heers declares.

The Lady Eagles shot just 25.8 percent overall, broken down to 41 percent from the free throw line and 31 percent from the field.

“Even playing as poorly as we played, we led the game the first half,” Heers says.

Scoring for Fairfield were: Cox, 9; Wyatt, 7; Morton, 6; Mayo, 4; McElroy, 4; Brown, 3; Linton, 2; and Krystal Rischer, 2.

The Lady Eagles open district this Friday when they host the Palestine Lady Wildcats, then host the Brownsboro Lady Bears on Tuesday.