Capital City was in foul trouble early and couldn't find its way out.
The Owensville Dutchgirls hit 24-of-40 free throws Tuesday night to beat the Lady Cavaliers 65-30 in Capital City's girls basketball home opener at Capital City High School in Jefferson City.
The Lady Cavaliers committed nine fouls in the first quarter, leaving the Dutchgirls in the double bonus through the entire second quarter.
"At halftime, almost half of their 30 points were off free throws," Capital City coach Ashley Agee said. "We had 16 going in, you take those away and it's an even ballgame. We were taken out of our game early on. All five of our starters had two fouls by the end of the first quarter and its hard to bounce back from that."
The Cavaliers took the opening lead when Kyla James took a pass from Natalie Allison on the left wing and drove through defenders for a layup, then Owensville tied the game with two of four free throws before the twin connection of Kyla Hendrix and Keira Hendrix combined for two when Kyla dished an assist to Keira.
The Lady Cavaliers retook the lead when Allison turned a steal into a layup before putting up two more after an offensive rebound.
Owensville tied it when Anna Finley grabbed a defensive rebound and took it coast to coast for a layup, then another free throw gave the Dutchgirls the lead they would not give up.
Finley's layup started a 10-0 run for the Dutchgirls, ending the first quarter ahead 14-6, with four of those 10 coming from free throws.
Owensville extended the run to 23-3 through the first three minutes of the second quarter, sinking another six free throws along the way.
Down 26-9, Capital City began to fight back.
James grabbed an offensive board before scoring two putback points, then Natiyah Ewing scored two of her eventual six points on a breakaway layup before scoring two more fastbreak points and pump-faking a defender under the basket.
Addison Jones hit one of two free throws to give the Lady Cavaliers a 7-0 run and cutting the Owensville lead to 28-16.
The Dutchgirls got another basket and free throw to go into halftime up 31-16.
"We never really got into our offense, they did a great job on defense," Agee said. "Their full-court press is as tough as it gets."
Owensville opened the second half with a 16-3 run, with Capital City's only points coming when James dished to Jones for a left-wing 3 in the first minute.
After the first 4:30, the Dutchgirls led 47-19.
Capital City got six points from Jadaa Anderson in the final 3:30, two off an assist from Jones, two after an offensive rebound and two on a designed inbound play, to cut the deficit to 51-25 at the end of the third quarter.
"I think our hustle and everything is there," Agee said. "We need to learn to control our body language and how we respond to adversity. We're not very good, when things don't go our way, at bouncing back or handling that."
The Dutchgirls outscored the Lady Cavaliers 15-5 in the final quarter to build their final lead.
"We had a couple of girls late step up as leaders, who maybe wouldn't have last year," Agee said. "That last group stayed humble and finished out, worked hard to the buzzer. We always can work hard and I think we worked 10 times harder than we would have last year."
Allison led the Lady Cavaliers with eight points, while Anderson scored seven points and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.
Ewing scored six points, while James and Jones each had four. James complemented her scoring with five rebounds.
Capital City made 11-of-42 shots as a team, including 1-for-9 shooting on 3-pointers, while sinking 7-of-19 free throws.
Kyla Hendrix led the Dutchgirls with 18 points to complement three rebounds, while Emma Daniels scored 12 points and brought down seven boards. Camryn Caldwell scored 10 points, as did Finley, who added six rebounds for Owensville. Keira Hendrix had eight rebounds for the Dutchgirls, who shot 20-of-51 overall and 1-of-9 on 3-pointers.
Capital City (1-1) will face Jamestown at 4:30 p.m. Monday at the Tipton Tournament, while Owensville (2-0) goes to the Marquette Tournament.
Owensville beat Capital City 31-25 during two-quarter junior varsity action Tuesday.
Aslyn Marshall led the Lady Cavaliers with 12 points.
Anya Binkhoelter led the Dutchgirls with 15 points.