Blair Oaks girls surge past Fatima

Autumn Bax of Blair Oaks looks to put up a shot during Tuesday night’s game against Fatima in Wardsville. (Shaun Zimmerman/News Tribune)
Autumn Bax of Blair Oaks looks to put up a shot during Tuesday night’s game against Fatima in Wardsville. (Shaun Zimmerman/News Tribune)

WARDSVILLE -- Down the stretch, the Blair Oaks Lady Falcons did the little things to get huge victory.

“That was a big one,” Blair Oaks coach Brandon Moore said Tuesday night after the Lady Falcons defeated the Fatima Lady Comets 41-35. “We look forward to this game every year, it’s always fun to compete against them. We know how good of a basketball team Fatima is.

“It will help us down the road, for sure.”

It was a game not up to usual standards for Fatima, ranked No. 3 in Class 4.

“No sir,” Fatima coach Matt Baker said. “Too many mistakes, too many turnovers.


 Gallery: Blair Oaks Girls Basketball vs. Fatima


The six-point final margin was the largest lead of the game for either team.

A 3-pointer by Chesney Luebbering midway through the first quarter gave Blair Oaks a 9-5 lead. Fatima outscored Blair Oaks 8-4 the rest of the quarter to tie the game at 13.

It was an ugly start to the second quarter as the teams combined to go 0-of-9 from the field with six turnovers in the opening 3:20.

A steal and layup by Vivian Bax of Fatima broke the scoreless skid. Fatima led 20-15 after a short jumper by Bax with 2:55 remaining, but Blair Oaks came back to cut the deficit to a point at 22-21 at intermission despite committing 15 first-half turnovers.

“We’re young, we know we’re going to turn it over,” Moore said. “So we need to compete on the defensive end, take the ball off a rebound instead of out of the basket. And it was a great defensive effort tonight.”

Blair Oaks took its first lead since late in the first quarter on a Luebbering free throw with a little less than three minutes remaining in the third quarter to give the Lady Falcons a 25-24 lead.

Fatima answered on its next possession with a 3-pointer by Lucy Crede and the Lady Comets took a 30-26 advantage into the fourth quarter.

Blair Oaks opened the fourth quarter with a 7-0 run, the first five points coming from Emma Wolken before a pair of Autumn Bax free throws with 4:33 left gave the Lady Falcons a 33-30 lead.

“The girls showed a lot of toughness,” Moore said. “We’ve talked a lot about competing hard for four quarters and we did that tonight.”

A short jumper by Alli Robertson with 3:50 remaining cut Blair Oaks’ lead to 33-32. But on the ensuing possession, Robertson was whistled for her fifth foul. She finished the game with team-highs of 10 points and six rebounds.

“She’s been really good playing in foul trouble, but tonight, she didn’t,” Baker said.

Bax hit two free throws to make it 35-32. Fatima then tied it at 35 with 2:24 remaining on a 3-pointer by Emma Bower.

The little things then grew big the rest of the way for Blair Oaks.

A pair of offensive rebounds by Belle Boessen kept a possession alive for the Lady Falcons before Wolken made a pair of free throws to make it 37-35 with :37.9 left.

“(Boessen) kept possessions alive, that’s extra opportunities for us to score,” Moore said.

Bax then rebounded a missed Fatima 3-pointer on the ensuing possession. With :19 remaining, Bax was fouled and went to the free-throw line to shoot a 1-and-1. She missed the first, but came up with the rebound near the basket and was fouled again.

“The ball bounced in the lane and nobody went and got it and they got two more free throws,” Baker said.

Bax hit them both to give Blair Oaks a 39-35 lead. Two free throws by Baley Rackers with :01.8 left made the final 41-35.

“We gave them too many extra opportunities,” Baker said.

Fatima finished 13-of-46 from the field, including a 5-of-27 performance on 3-pointers, to go along with 24 turnovers.

“Credit to Blair Oaks for that,” Baker said. “We didn’t shoot it well, we didn’t move the ball well. Overall, it was not a good offensive effort.”

Fatima (5-2) is back in action next week in the Jefferson Bank Holiday Hoops Classic at Capital City High School. The Lady Comets open the three-day event against Hickman at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.

“We’ve got a tough road in that tournament, it’s not going to get any easier,” Baker said. “We’re going to have to put our heads down and run into the storm.”

Wolken finished with 11 points for the Lady Falcons, who had 26 turnovers of their own. Bax finished with a double-double, totaling 10 points and 11 rebounds.

With the win, Blair Oaks improves to 3-5.

“You look at our record and it would be easy to say we’re not very good and I don’t want to work hard today in practice or have positive energy,” Moore said. “But this group, nothing rattles them. We’ve had some of the best practices of the season in the last week and that’s what you have to have to improve.”

Weather permitting, Blair Oaks will host Southern Boone in a Tri-County Conference contest Thursday night.