Things got better for the Fatima Lady Comets each day.
It was an eye-opener Wednesday for the Lady Comets, who opened the Jefferson Bank Holiday Hoops Classic with a 64-28 loss to eventual tournament champion Hickman. The 34-point loss was far from what the Lady Comets were expecting, even against a strong Class 6 program.
“After Wednesday, we had to take a good hard look at ourselves,” Fatima coach Matt Baker said. “We ran into a buzz-saw. I was worried coming into Thursday, because Staley is good.”
Things got better Thursday as Fatima topped Class 6 Staley 42-38 in the loser’s bracket semifinals.
“We battled and put our noses down and grinded out a really tough win,” Baker said.
Friday afternoon, Fatima played like Fatima.
“We looked more like ourselves again,” Baker said after the Lady Comets defeated the Oxford, Miss., Lady Chargers 64-43 in the fifth-place game of the Classic at Capital City High School. “I hope we’re going in the right direction.”
The Lady Comets never trailed in the game, jumping out to a 9-2 lead on their way to a 16-4 advantage at the end of the first quarter.
Fatima played 10 players in the opening eight minutes.
“When you play three games in three days, you have to get into your bench,” Baker said. “We have luxury of having some good players to bring off the bench, so it helped us save our legs today for sure.”
After Oxford hit a 3-pointer to start the scoring in the second quarter, Fatima scored the next 11 points to make it 27-7 with 1:25 left in the half. Five different players scored in the run for the Lady Comets, who took a 32-9 lead into halftime.
Baker noted Oxford entered the Classic a bit short-handed after losing their best player to an injury earlier this month.
“They’re still trying to find themselves and this is not the place be doing that,” Baker said. “It’s tough when you see something like that happen.”
Oxford outscored Fatima 21-17 in the third quarter, going 7-of-11 from the field and hitting all three of its 3-pointers.
The Lady Chargers got as close as 13 points in the fourth quarter, that coming at 51-38 with about four minutes remaining. But the Lady Comets then closed the game on a 12-5 run to post the 21-point victory.
Olivia Waddell led Oxford (9-9) with 15 points. C.C. Frierson, who was selected to the all-tournament team, added 12 points while pulling down a team-high six rebounds.
Fatima had 11 of its 12 players score in the game. Emma Bower led the Lady Comets with 11 points.
Alli Robertson and Vivian Bax were selected to the all-tournament team for Fatima.
There will be little time for Lady Comets to recover as Fatima (7-3) is back in action Monday at home against California.
“We’re just going to keep lining them up and trying to survive,” Baker said.