In beating Western Hills 70-40 Saturday night at Franklin County High School, the Lady Flyers fell back on two pillars of winning basketball: defense and rebounding.
Franklin County (9-3) didn't do either particularly well in the second quarter, allowing the Lady Wolverines (4-4) to outscore FCHS 15-10 in the quarter and bring a double-digit lead back to single digits. The halftime score was 33-24.
"We dominated on the boards the first, third and fourth quarter," FCHS coach Joey Thacker said. "They got back in the game in the second quarter because we really failed to check into somebody in the half court."
The rest of game, however, belonged to the Lady Flyers. Franklin County locked down the Lady Wolverines' offense in the third " only allowing four points " and hit 10-of-14 free throws to seize a commanding 55-28 advantage entering the fourth.
Andrea Howard led FCHS with 10 rebounds and 22 points, including eight consecutive points in the first quarter to jumpstart the Lady Flyer offense. Chelsea Craig was also in double figures with 16.
"Andrea was super," Thacker said. "She really got us off to a good start on the perimeter, which made them guard our shooters and allowed Chelsea Craig to work a little bit in the post."
It was tough going from the start for Western Hills. A 6-0 run by Franklin County made the score 19-4 midway through the first quarter. In the second quarter, Tara Arnold scored six of her 10 points to pull WHHS within seven at 29-22. A basket by Annie Smith and free throws by Andrea Howard bracketed Sarah Roberts' putback to end the half. It was all Lady Flyers after halftime.
"We've been preaching mental focus, but we didn't really come out ready to play," WHHS coach Kevin Radford said.
"I thought we were loose in our warm-ups, but in our first four possessions of the ball game, we didn't get anything we wanted out of our offense.
"We create so many things defensively pressuring the ball and then we just turn it right back over to them. You're not going to win any basketball doing that."
Radford received a technical foul at the beginning of the third quarter with the score 35-24 after complaining about a discrepancy in fouls.
"Tonight, I thought there were some cheap calls," he said. "I got a technical in the second half and that was just to let them know I wasn't real happy. We had three people foul out. They had none."
Howard made both of the free throws on the technical and the Lady Flyers went on to outscore the Lady Wolverines 35-16 the rest of the way.
"I think we had a little bit of legs and I think they got a little tired," Thacker said.
FRANKLIN COUNTY (70) " Madelyn Brown 5, Andrea Howard 22, Ashley Decker 4, Raven Timmons 2, Finnja Ramcke 7, Ashli Mayes 6, Chelsea Craig 16, Chelsea Brown 2, Annie Smith 6.
WESTERN HILLS (40) " Danielle Watson 3, Meagan Walker 7, Elizabeth Owens 8, Tara Arnold 10, Kayla Mills 3, Sarah Roberts 6, Krystal Cammuse 3.