No matter how hard they tried, the Jefferson City Lady Jays just couldn't weather the Storm.
Every time the Lady Jays were close to tying Notre Dame de Sion, something went wrong. Maybe it was the turnovers or the chilly 6-for-18 shooting at the free-throw line that hurt Jefferson City's chances.
The two-point fourth quarter didn't help the effort either.
"We had no business winning this ballgame tonight," Lady Jays coach Shane Meyer said after Jefferson City dropped a 43-31 decision Friday night at Fleming Fieldhouse. "We were completely outplayed right from the start.
"They kind of dictated things to us.
"I didn't like our energy tonight. For whatever reason, we seemed a little flat. If you're off for eight days, you should be bursting at the seams to get out there and play.
"It seemed to have the adverse effect on us."
Jefferson City (6-4) trailed from the get-go, as Notre Dame de Sion opened the game on a 10-2 run before ending the quarter up 15-7.
Alexandra Keane scored 11 of her game-high 22 points in the opening quarter for the Storm.
Notre Dame de Sion (9-2) took its time finding open shots, as the Storm pushed its lead to 21-9 early in the second quarter. That type of patient offense kept the Lady Jays off-balance.
"There wasn't much flow to tonight's ballgame," Meyer said. "We've got to do some different things where we've got to dictate tempo and get out and play."
The Lady Jays trailed 26-17 at the break, but got back in the game off five straight points by Sadie Theroff to make it 29-25. Lauren Reeves hit a 3 late in the period to cut the lead to three at 32-29.
But Keane knocked down a jumper at the buzzer to push the lead back to five.
Things didn't get off on the right foot in the fourth quarter.
"We had to call a timeout before we started the fourth quarter," Meyer said. "It was a prelude of what was to come."
What was to come was a two-point quarter where the Lady Jays were 0-of-8 from the field and 2-of-9 from the free-throw line.
"We've really been a good free-throw shooting team," Meyer said. "We're near 70 percent as a team this year and have very poor free-throw shooting nights.
"Unfortunately tonight was one of them. And in a big way, it was one of them."
The Storm outscored the Lady Jays 11-2 in the final frame to secure the win.
Jefferson City shot just 10-of-34 from the field and turned the ball over 21 times.
"We were turning the ball over too much and not knocking down enough shots," Meyer said.
Theroff led the Lady Jays, who return to action at noon today at Lewis and Clark Middle School against St. Teresa's Academy, in scoring with nine points.
"We've got an interesting challenge and have to bounce back," Meyer said.
The Lady Jays lost the JV game 39-34.