FAIRFIELD SENIOR GUARD Joye McElroy keeps her eye on the basket, in spite of the efforts of a Palestine Lady Wildcats defender. The Fairfield high school Lady Eagles varsity basketball team played just one game last week, the District 20-AAA opener against the Palestine Lady Wildcats, and scored a decisive win.

Junior varsity cagers also played Palestine and the freshman team was idle.

A game early in the week against Hearne was called off by the Hearne coach.

“Defensively, we played with a lot of pressure and it paid off as the game went on,” FHS head coach Stephen Heers says.

He also utilized the bench well to keep fresh legs on the court, which made a big difference late in the contest.

The Lady Eagles opened the game by taking a 15-9 first period lead and added 13 points in the second period to go ahead 30-17 at intermission.

Combining defensive pressure and fresh players from the bench, the Eagles tallied 18 points in the third period and 19 in the fourth, giving up nine and five, to win handily 67-31.

“The best thing we did is run the floor. We made them run, and when we set up we made them run repeatedly,” Heers says.

The coach also made some substitutions of four players at a time, using his bench to good effect in wearing down the Lady Wildcats.

He points out that when the defense holds an opponent to less than 40 points the team should claim a win.

Leading the offensive effort with 17 points apiece were Kiresten Cox and Barvion Wyatt. They were joined in double digits by Joye McElroy, 10 points.

Also scoring were: Courtney Morton, 8; Olivia Gallegos, 6; Jermaca Brown, 3; Sarah Linton, 2; Mia Mayo, 2; and Jasmine Griffin, 2.

The Lady Eagles shot 65 percent from the free throw line, hitting 17 of 26 attempts.

“One bright spot is we were 65 percent from the free throw line. That may not sound like a bright spot, but it was,” Heers says.

Fairfield has been plagued this season with cold free throw shooting, dropping well below 50 percent in games.

Perfect on five free throws was Miss Cox, while Miss McElroy made all four of her attempts.

The jv quintet took a slight 10-7 lead over Palestine in the first period, then got hot for 21 points in the second period to claim a 31-9 lead going into the half.

Fairfield tallied nine points in the third period and 11 in the fourth, giving up six and 11, to win easily 51-26.

Reaching double digits were Keanna Cox, 13 points, Krystal Rischer, 11 points, and Fruncheska Daniels, 10 points.

Also scoring were: Sadie Schaefer, 6; Jayda Griffin, 2; Denise Washington, 2; Hannah Dodds, 2; Gabby Jackson, 2; Kassi Floyd, 2; and Christy Harper, 1.

The Lady Eagles were scheduled to host Brownsboro early this week, head to Athens on Friday and play at Westwood on Tuesday.