By Luke Geraghty
It was a cold, rainy Tuesday night as both the Lady Highlanders and the Madison Lady Cubs scorched the FC gymnasium with solid shooting. However, the Cubs’ seven three pointers were too much as they pulled away from FC 86-63.
The Cubs jumped out to a big lead early and by the end of the first quarter they had a 23-11 lead thanks to senior guard Kelsey Block, who hit four early three point shots.
In the second quarter, FC slowly started making a rally halfway through. With just over three minutes left in the second quarter, sophomore Riley Kaiser drew a fundamentally sound charge, which helped get the crowd back in the game. The Cubs would keep the lead at halftime though, 43-33.
“I thought we played decent tonight, maybe a C+. There way way too many turnovers early on but they did a good job overcoming them to rally back,” said junior Lucas Corley.
FC started the second half on a mini 4-0 run to cut the deficit to 43-37. Halfway through the third quarter, Kaiser had an opportunity for a three point play after being fouled and making a crucial basket. This appeared to be another game changing moment as FC cut the Madison lead down to 53-48. Madison would score two points to close out the quarter and the Cubs would take a 55-48 lead.
Madison jumped out to a 69-55 lead in the fourth quarter until senior Kelsey Smith had another “and one” after making a basket while taking contact. The lead was cut down to 69-58, but it was all Cubs the rest of the way. Block hit two more threes to help seal the win for the Cubs. Block finished with 20 points and six three pointers. The Cubs went 7-12 from three-point range while FC went 0-5. Both teams went to the foul line over 30 times. FC went 23-32 at the free throw line while the Cubs were 25-37. Corley talked about what the team needs to improve for the future.
The JV Highlanders defeated Madison 48-32 Tuesday night.
The loss put FC 0-4 on the season and 0-2 in the HHC. Their next game will be Saturday against Southwestern at 6 p.m. for junior varsity and 7:30 for varsity.