MORGANTOWN — The Trinity Christian girls’ basketball team fell 60-52 to regional opponent Frankfort on Friday night in Sabraton.
The Falcons outscored the Warriors by 13 points in the second half to capture a victory on the road by way of efficient offense and cold shooting from TCS.
Senior Larae Grove led the Falcons with a game-high 27 points. She was accompanied by senior center Arin Lease who contributed 16 of her own. The Warriors were led by Jenna Barnett with 24 points.
“Tonight was a good battle, both teams played really hard,” TCS head coach Mike Baldy said after the game. “It’s disappointing that the trend continues where we can’t hold first-half leads but this game was different than the other games but we never gave up.”
Baldy’s squad entered halftime leading by five points, 31-26, after the teams were tied at 15 after the opening quarter.
Warrior guard Ella Lynch hit one of four triples for her team in the first half at the buzzer before the break. That shot extended the lead to two possessions with TCS receiving the ball first to open the third quarter.
Perhaps the first possession set the tone for the Frankfort-favored second half, as Grove managed to rip the ball away from Sucora Brown as she caught the inbound pass and ran down the floor for a quick two.
FHS turned that into a 7-0 run in the first three minutes of the third quarter, as the Warriors’ offense began to struggle and shots weren’t falling.
After seeing four threes go in in the first half, the Warriors shot just 2 for 9 from deep in the final two frames. Kaylee Wimer, who shot 4 for 4 from deep on Monday at Clay-Battelle, made just one of her eight attempts Friday.
“I think we are a bit too statistic driven a little bit,” Baldy said. “We aren’t being selfish because of statistics, but we get down as a team when we don’t perform well and we get too hard on ourselves. We were down by four with three minutes to play and had the ball and during our timeout we had our heads down. If you told me before the game we would have that situation, I would take it.”
Foul trouble also plagued the Warriors as Brown exited the game with two minutes to go. The Falcons shot 25 free throws in the game, converting 17 of them. TCS went 8 for 13 from the stripe.
“I can’t blame Cora for fouling out tonight,” Baldy said. “None of the fouls were bad fouls and they had some size on us. She plays so hard every game.”
Frankfort 60, Trinity 52
FHS 15 11 18 16 – 60
TCS 15 16 11 10 – 52
Frankfort – Zimmerman 0 2-2 2; Grove 17 5-5 27; Lease 14 4-6 16; Rubie 1 0-2 2; Noel 7 4-6 8; Scott 6 2-4 6
Trinity – Barnett 21 3-5 24; Wimer 10 0-0 3; Brown 11 3-4 9; Fisher 8 2-2 8; Lynch 5 0-0 6; Turner 2 0-0 2
3pt goals – Frankfort 4 (Grove 4); Trinity 6 (Barnett 3, Lynch 2, Wimer 1)
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