Jones leads Lady Leopards in tough season home-opener loss to Camden-fairview
MALVERN — Despite coming up short of victory, the hometown Malvern Lady Leopards kept their match-up competitive Monday in their season-home opener loss to visiting Camden-fairview Lady Cardinals 44-31 at the Leopard Center.
Malvern’s Dy’sire Jones paced the Lady Leopards with a double-digit scoring performance and dropped 13 points in a productive home debut for the Leopard Center hoop fans.
The Lady Cardinals opened the first quarter on a 7-0 run down to the 4:42 mark. But, Malvern’s Ayanna Johnson nailed two clutch free-throws to stop the Lady Cardinal’s momentum and got the Lady Leopards on the scoreboard—trailing Camden-fairview 7-2.
Jones followed up with a bucket to cut Malvern’s deficit and trailed Camden-fairview 7-4 at the 3:31 mark during first quarter action.
The Lady Cardinals finished out the first period with a basket from the field and splitting a pair of freethrows to take a 10-4 lead over Malvern at the end of the first quarter.
In the second, the Lady Leopards’ defense held Camden-fairview under double-digits, which both teams matched each other scoring wise 9-9 in the period. But at the break, Malvern trailed Camden-fairview, 19-13, with the Lady Leopards taking a slim six-point deficit to the locker room at halftime.
In the second half, Malvern charged back with a productive scoring third period, but the Lady Cardinals outscored the Lady Leopards 15-9. At the end of three quarters of action, Malvern trailed Camden-fairview, 35-22.
In the fourth, Jones nailed the first bucket of the period to bring Malvern within 11 points to Camden-fairview’s lead—35-24 with 6:30 left to play in the contest. While two and half minutes ran down off the game clock, the Lady Cardinals completed a three-point play extended their lead back to a 13-point advantage, 37-24, but Chasney Cooper clinch a pair of free-throws to cut Malvern’s deficit and still trailed the Lady Cardinals 3726 with 3:52 left to play. Malvern kept battling to make a rally and eventually cut the lead down to a 10-point margin after Johnson split a pair of foul shots from a trip at the charity stripe, but this would only be the closest the hometown Lady Leopards could come within Camden-fairview’s lead—37-27. In the final two minutes of action, Jones and Cooper scored Malvern’s points while the Lady Cardinals added six points that led to the visitor’s 13-point win against the Lady Leopards.
For the game, Lady Leopards’ Cooper hit seven points, Johnson followed with five points, Nadia Mitchell contributed four points and Cayla Spencer added two points which came in the second quarter.
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The Lady Leopards are off for the Thanksgiving holiday break, but are scheduled to return to hoop competition Tuesday, November 29 hosting Mount Pine at the Leopard Center.