WARDSVILLE - It's not the ideal schedule for the last week of the regular season, playing three games in four days, but at least the Blair Oaks Lady Falcons got things started on the right foot.
Faced with home games Monday against Versailles and today versus Battle, plus a road game Thursday at California, the Lady Falcons started things off with a 69-41 win against the Lady Tigers.
"It's an important week going into districts," Blair Oaks coach Kevin Kohler said. "... We were a little flat (Monday) and you don't want to be flat in your last week, but we were a little flat.
"I hope they'll be excited (tonight), and I know they will be Thursday night - they love to play California. They have a lot of friends from summer ball that play on that team."
Even being a little flat, the Lady Falcons got off to a great start Monday, scoring the game's first nine points. Macyn Wilbers had a pair of jumpers and Kallie Kerperin had one, while Sydney Wilde drilled a 3-pointer. It was the start of a big night for Wilde, who canned 4-of-6 from beyond the arc.
The lead eventually grew to 12 when Cassidy Prenger made a layup to put it at 17-5 in favor of the Lady Falcons.
Blair Oaks took a 19-9 lead into the second quarter, where it outscored Versailles to lead 33-22.
The Lady Falcons' biggest lead of the half was 26-11 after a layup by Brooke Boessen, but the Lady Tigers came right back with a 7-0 spurt featuring a layup by Shelby Jackson and a 3-pointer and a layup by Duanna Frerking.
Kohler said his team could have put the game away earlier than it did.
"Honestly, I think we were a little emotional over Senior Night," he said. "Kallie Kerperin is our lone senior and she's a fantastic captain. She takes care of everything behind the scenes and all the girls love her. So everybody was a little blubbery at all that.
"We just talked at halftime about how we had to focus and do what we were supposed to do and take of business."
The Lady Falcons did just that in the third quarter, where they outscored the Lady Tigers 21-7 to lead 54-29 heading to the fourth quarter.
The final margin, which came when Kayla Jones made a layup at the buzzer, was the biggest lead of the game.
Blair Oaks held a massive 42-23 edge in rebounds, led by eight from Kellie Fredendall and seven apiece from Wilbers and Prenger.
Fredendall paced Blair Oaks with a game-high 18 points, while Wilde had 14 and Boessen added 10.
Jackson scored a team-high 17 points for Versailles (5-17), while Frerking had 13 points and tied for the game high with eight rebounds.
"Versailles, I saw them early, and they've really improved," Kohler said.
The game featured a whopping 10 held-ball situations, five in each half.
Blair Oaks is now 12-11 heading into tonight's game with Battle.
"We've got two big games this week that will be big challenges for us," Kohler said. "California is tough and Battle has got good size and quickness, they're a good team. They have their nights when they can play with anybody."
In Monday's JV game, all nine Blair Oaks players scored as the Lady Falcons throttled Versailles 84-7.
Blair Oaks, which led 26-2 after one quarter, 53-2 at halftime and 67-7 after three, was paced by Claire Heckman's 15 points. Jones added 13 for the Lady Falcons (11-4), Ashley Fifer had 12, Torie Thurston added 11 and Grace Scott chipped in 10.