Abby West takes a shot during the Lady Rebels' 59-42 win over Fayette Academy Tuesday night at home. Photo by Jeff Ireland
It took a while for the Tipton-Rosemark Lady Rebels to get their offense going Tuesday night at home in a league game against Fayette Academy.
The Lady Rebels didn’t get their first field goal until Jordan Allen scored with nearly half of the first quarter gone. TRA beat Fayette Academy by 32 points three weeks ago but led the Lady Vikings by just two points midway through the second quarter.
Eventually, though, TRA (15-4 overall, 8-2 DII-A-West) righted the ship and cruised to a 59-42 win to remain in second place in the league standings.
“Their girls came to play like they should,” TRA coach Cedric Anderson said. “Everybody’s getting better this time of year. We got a bunch of turnovers on them, but we weren’t able to get the basket to extend our lead.”
Allen, who finished with 10 points, said her team wasn’t overly concerned the Lady Vikings were hanging with them for most of the first half.
“Coach was telling us you don’t want all the games to be close,” Allen said. “We hadn’t been on the court since Friday so we’ve been trying to ease back into it.”
TRA took a 9-6 lead on a 3-pointer by Megan Sanfratello with 1:54 left in the first quarter and extended the lead to five on a bucket by Abby West, but Fayette Academy remained within striking distance, trailing 22-17 at the half.
Sanfratello, who finished with a team-high 12 points, sparked a 12-0 run to the start the second half that put the game out of reach. She hit three 3-pointers during the run and Allen added a bucket in the paint to push the lead to 34-17 with 4:40 left in the third. Fayette Academy did not cut the lead to single digits the rest of the way.
Brianna Hall, who hit the 1,000-point mark for her career last week, scored 11 points and West added 10. Mary Catherine Turner and Raven Sims each scored eight.
Both of Rosemark’s league losses this season came against first-place Trinity Christian Academy, a team TRA won’t see again unless they play them in the region tournament. If the Lady Rebels can beat University School of Jackson next Tuesday, they will most likely finish second in the league standings.
“I think we’re looking really good and we a have better chance than we’ve ever had of trying to get to the state tournament,” Allen said.
“We talk a lot about postseason positioning,” Anderson said. “The higher seed you are the better off you’re going to be. We can’t afford to give any ground to any team.”
