Surge in second half leads Blair Oaks girls past Hallsville

Players warm up Monday night, Feb. 22, 2021, as the Blair Oaks Lady Falcons and Hallsville prepare to play basketball in Wardsville. Blair Oaks scored the first 12 points of the second half to take the lead on its way to a 50-40 victory in Tri-County Conference action.
Players warm up Monday night, Feb. 22, 2021, as the Blair Oaks Lady Falcons and Hallsville prepare to play basketball in Wardsville. Blair Oaks scored the first 12 points of the second half to take the lead on its way to a 50-40 victory in Tri-County Conference action.

WARDSVILLE - The Blair Oaks Lady Falcons didn't dwell on it.

The Hallsville Lady Indians closed the final 1:49 of the first half on a 7-0 run to take a 29-20 lead into intermission against the Lady Falcons.

The Lady Falcons then spent less than four minutes in the locker room before coming out to warm up for the second half.

"You have two choices as a coach," Blair Oaks coach Brandon Moore said. "You can either get into them and use the full amount of time or you can keep it quick.

"Yes, we didn't finish the first half like we wanted. But that didn't mean we had a bad first half. I didn't think I needed to over-coach in the situation, we just needed go out and play hard and play the right way."

It was the right choice. Blair Oaks scored the first 12 points of the second half to take the lead on its way to a 50-40 victory in Tri-County Conference action.

"All we talked about was energy," Moore said. "It was just really flat in the first half, so we talked about creating our own energy in the second half.

"We stopped thinking and just started playing."

Mallorie Fick had five points in the run for the Lady Falcons, including a pair of free throws that capped the spurt and gave Blair Oaks a 32-29 lead with 4:30 left in the third quarter.

The two teams then traded points the rest of the quarter, with a free throw by Autumn Bax giving Blair Oaks a 38-37 lead going to the fourth quarter.

Blair Oaks was 9-of-12 at the free-throw line in the third quarter.

"We've struggled on free throws this season and we've worked hard to get better," Moore said. "A lot of it is just shooting enough of them to be confident in making them in big situations during the game."

Blair Oaks started the fourth quarter with a 6-1 spurt to take a 44-38 lead. The Lady Falcons then scored the last six points of the game to take their biggest lead of the night at 50-40.

Hallsville scored seven of the first eight points of the game to take an early lead. Blair Oaks then battled back to tie the game at 10 heading to the second quarter.

The Lady Indians were patient on offense throughout the game, often throwing an extra pass or two in an attempt to find a more open player.

"That's what made us stagnant on both ends of the floor," Moore said. "They control the tempo so well with that offense, they're super patient. They don't get into a hurry.

"You can have a good 15 or 20 seconds on defense with them passing it around, you have to be ready for that."

Emily Leer led Hallsville (15-6 overall, 2-4 Tri-County) with 12 points. Avery Oetting added 11 points, all in the first half.

Fick finished with 15 points to pace Blair Oaks. Bax added 13, while pulling down nine rebounds.

"(Bax) lets the game come to her, she just plays hard," Moore said.

Blair Oaks (11-10, 4-1) will play today at Versailles before wrapping up the regular season Thursday at home against Southern Boone.

In Monday night's JV game, Blair Oaks defeated Hallsville 37-27.

Emma Wolken had 14 points for the Lady Falcons.

In a two-quarter freshman game Monday, Blair Oaks topped Hallsville 16-12.

Courtney Russell and Dorothy Lackman had five points each for the Lady Falcons.