It’s not the start to the basketball season the Jefferson City Lady Jays wanted.
But it’s not how you start the season, it’s how you finish.
“We’re getting better, it’s going to be a slow progression,” Lady Jays coach Kay Foster said after Jefferson City fell to 0-5 after Monday night’s 55-45 loss to the Ozark Tigers at Fleming Fieldhouse. “Every game is training for where we want to be at the end of the season and that’s as a district champion.
“There’s no doubt in my mind we can do that, I believe in these kids. It’s just a matter of going through the training in our schedule. We just need to stay the course.”
A 3-pointer by Addison Morgan with 1:45 left in the first quarter gave Jefferson City its final lead of the game at 11-10. Ozark closed the quarter with a 5-0 run to take a four-point lead, then used a 9-3 run at the start of the second quarter to push its lead to double digits.
But the Lady Jays showed some life to close the second quarter, outscoring the Tigers 9-1 during the last 4:10 to trim Ozark’s lead to 27-25 at intermission.
The game got away from Jefferson City in the third quarter. The Lady Jays committed seven turnovers on their first 11 possessions as Ozark took a 41-33 advantage into the fourth quarter.
“We played with energy and took care of the ball in the first half,” Foster said. “But then in the third quarter we lost a little bit of our energy and our focus. We started making silly mistakes that we didn’t make in the first half.
“Their defense wasn’t any different, our decision-making was different.”
Foster thought fatigue might have played a factor in the second half as the Lady Jays were playing their fourth game in the last five days.
“It’s hard to fight that,” Foster said.
Ozark led by as many as 16 points in the fourth quarter, that coming at 53-37 with 2:40 remaining. Jefferson City closed the game on an 8-2 run.
“We’re going to fight to the end, I didn’t see a kid give up tonight,” Foster said.
Ozark (2-2), the first non-ranked team Jefferson City has played this season, was led in scoring Jordyn Foley’s 12 points, Riley Boggs added 11.
Hannah Linthacum totaled 22 points and 18 rebounds for Jefferson City despite battling foul trouble throughout the second half.
“She dribbles, passes, shoots, rebounds, she’s the core of what we do and everybody feeds off of her,” Foster said. “We have to get the other kids involved in the offense, they have a tendency sometimes to stand and watch, we need the to take shots. We passed up a ton of good shots.
“It’s a youth problem and that will get better with experience.”
Morgan added 10 points for Jefferson City, who will play Thursday night at Blair Oaks.
“We need a win so bad,” Foster said. “But I’m not discouraged.”
In Monday night’s JV game, Ozark defeated Jefferson City 49-17. Emerald Okpodighe had six points to lead the Lady Jays.