WARDSVILLE -- For the first 10 minutes it was a back and forth affair.
The final 22 minutes were all Fatima.
The Lady Comets scored 44 of the final 54 points at Blair Oaks High School to take a 53-20 win Tuesday night against the Versailles Lady Tigers in the opening round of the Class 4 District 10 Tournament.
“It’s always good to win, it’s good to get on the floor,” Fatima coach Matt Baker said. “It’s a different shooting gym, I’ll say that much. So to come in here, get some shots up and get the jitters out, that’s gonna help come Thursday night.”
Fatima struggled to start, hitting only 3-of-14 shots and 2-of-4 free throws in the first quarter to take a 9-8 lead into the opening break.
Versailles’ Kourtney Rainey then gave the Lady Tigers their only lead of the game at 10-9 with an offensive rebound and putback with 6:17 left in the first half.
Then the nerves subsided for the Lady Comets.
Kaitlyn Plassmeyer hit a right-wing 3 to put the Lady Comets back in front, then Vivian Bax turned one of Fatima’s 19 steals into a layup before Alli Robertson chased down an offensive rebounds and pulled up for a right-wing 3 with 5:07 left in the second.
Robertson and Bax led the Lady Comets with 10 points each, while Plassmeyer ended with eight. Plassmeyer and Robertson did all their scoring in the first half.
Rainey ended the quick 7-0 run with a layup off a Kylee Richey assist, but the Lady Comets went on to score the final six points of the quarter to take a 23-12 lead into halftime.
“We didn’t play great, defensively it was pretty good,” Baker said. “Early, I think we missed eight or nine layups in the first half, just nerves. I think the nerves were going there, but overall, good enough.”
The Lady Comets came out of the break with a 6-0 run on a Bax 3, layup and free throw, extending to a 29-12 lead with 5:59 left.
Rainey scored the lone Versailles points of the third quarter on a layup off a Richey assist with 5:12 left, then Fatima scored the final 15 points of the quarter with the help of three 3s, to take a 44-14 lead into the final break.
“Yesterday’s practice was really tense and quiet,” Baker said. “It just seemed nervous. Then, coming in here they looked like they were nervous.”
Fatima scored the first nine points out of the break to extend to the biggest lead of the night at 53-14 with 2:59 left to play before Versailles scored the game’s final six points.
Fatima shot 20-of-58 (34.5 percent) overall, 9-of-24 (37.5 percent) from 3 and 4-of-8 (50 percent) at the free-throw line, while Versailles made 10-of-35 (28.6 percent) from the field, 0-of-16 from 3 and did not attempt a free throw.
Fatima forced 29 total turnovers and was able to force errant passes and constant deflections.
“Our kids always, to their credit, they always bring intensity for us,” Baker said. “Some nights it works, some nights it doesn’t. We knew we wouldn’t be able to handle (Richey) inside so we tried to make it as hard as we could getting the ball up the floor. … Just trying to wear them down and make them work on bringing the ball up. The intensity was good.”
Richey and Rainey co-led the Lady Tigers with six points each, while Richey added a team-high six rebounds and a game-high four blocks.
No. 3-seeded Fatima (20-7) returns to action at 7:30 p.m. Thursday when it plays against No. 2-seeded Owensville.
“Owensville is good, they got us at our place earlier this year,” Baker said. “We’re gonna have to look at a game plan, they’re small and quick. We’re quite a bit bigger than they are and we’re not a big team. We’re gonna have to adjust how we guard and do a better job of rebounding.”
Fifth-seeded Versailles ends the season with a record of 15-13.