Junior Lady Cobras fall short against Glen Rose

Fountain Lake competed hard with Glen Rose, but the junior Lady Cobras fell 32-25 to the junior Lady Beavers at Irvin J. Bass Gymnasium Tuesday.

It took Fountain Lake a couple of quarters to find its footing in the contest, but the junior Lady Cobras started to look more comfortable on the ball in the third quarter.

“It was a little bit better than what it was in the first half,” Fountain Lake coach Matt Carter said. “We didn’t turn the ball over as much. That was a big deal. We made some shots. If you make some shots, you have a chance. We changed defense and made some good adjustments, but we just couldn’t finish it out.”

Although Fountain Lake did not come away with the win, the junior Lady Cobras did compete for four quarters.

“We played hard,” Carter said. “That’s the big thing. I told them after the game we’re getting to where we’re solving one issue, and that’s our effort and how hard we play defensively. But we’ve got to be better with the ball, be tougher with the ball and not turn it over. We’re getting better, but we have a long way to go.”

After a tightly contested third quarter, Glen Rose started to pull away in the final six minutes. Zavery May found herself with plenty of space after an offensive rebound and scored the easy putback for a 25-20 junior Lady Beaver edge.

May led Glen Rose with 10 points.

Christina Vann scored two consecutive fast break layups to increase Glen Rose’s lead to nine. Following a few free throws by the Lady Cobras, Vann added another basket for a 31-23 advantage before Glen Rose closed out the game.

Baylea Wallace and Hannah Norris led the Lady Cobras with six points a piece.

“They do a good job with their man-to-man,” Carter said. “It was hard to just get by them and get to the rim. We had to execute better in order to do that. They did a good job in just making it tough on us. Just getting disrupted, showing inexperience, just got a lot to learn.”

Fountain Lake trailed at the half, but the Lady Cobras came into the third quarter energized.

Fountain Lake opened the second half with a 6-0 run to jump ahead 18-17.

A nice passing move saw Norris open the third quarter’s scoring before Emma Riley brought the Lady Cobras within one at 17-16 with just over three minutes to play in the quarter.

Norris impacted the game again with some nice footwork to the basket to give Fountain Lake an 18-17 lead.

However, the lead was shortlived as Glen Rose’s Maddison Hutcheson put the junior Lady Beavers back ahead 19-18, and Carter called a timeout.

After a free throw increased the visitors’ lead to two, Norris caught a pass on the perimeter

and dribbled inside to beat her defender and tie the game at 2020. Glen Rose’s Aubrey Pennington hit a buzzer-beater three to give the junior Lady Beavers a 23-30 edge to start the final six minutes.

It looked like Glen Rose would run away with the game in the second quarter. The junior Lady Beavers started the quarter with a free throw before a Lady Beaver dribbled up the floor herself and hit a 3-pointer for a 13-7 lead.

Glen Rose added to its lead when Emma Lewallen caught an inbounds pass and her a shot from the paint for a 15-7 edge.

Fountain Lake finally got on the scoreboard with two free throws, but a junior Lady Cobra turnover went into the hands of a junior Lady Beaver under the basket who increased Glen Rose’s lead to 17-9.

Fountain Lake earned some momentum toward the end of the quarter after Mallory Makin picked up an offensive rebound before scoring the putback to send the teams into intermission at 17-12.

FOUNTAIN LAKE (JB) 34, GLEN ROSE 9

The junior Cobras put in a great all around performance to take down the Beavers at Irvin J. Bass Gymnasium Tuesday evening.

“We did a nice job defensively and were able to force some turnovers and limit the number of easy shots we gave up by us pressuring,” Fountain Lake coach Jake Dettmering said. “Offensively we moved the ball. Did a pretty good job. Didn’t score a whole bunch in the first half especially but did a good job not turning the ball over and moving it.”

The Cobras played with an intensity from the start to be able to jump out to an early 6-2 lead after the first quarter.

“We felt like we needed to pressure out and force some turnovers,” Dettmering said. “They had size like just about every junior high team does. I didn’t want to just sit back. I wanted them to be more aggressive and try to dictate the tempo and see if we could go get out in transition. They did a nice job doing that.”

Dillon Dettmering led the junior Cobras with 14 points, and seven other Fountain Lake players scored on the night.

Fountain Lake went into the fourth quarter up 29-4, and Ethan Elmore added an early 3-pointer to increase the home team’s lead to 32-4.

The junior Beavers scored their first points of the second half on a 3-pointer from Jones before Drapes knocked down a mid-range jumper to set the final.

Fountain Lake came into the second half already ahead 17-4, and the Cobras were hot from the perimeter in the third quarter.

“That definitely kind of stretched the lead out,” Dettmering said. “But those shots weren’t designed shots. That’s just kind of the kids just playing together and passing to the open guy and just playing. The shot selection is good, and fortunately they went in.”

To start the third quarter, Dillon Dettmering dribbled into the paint and scored a layup for a 19-4 edge.

After passes from multiple teammates, Nathan Topf knocked down a 3-pointer to make it 22-4.

Then Dillon Dettmering hit back-to-back treys, including one from the corner to extend the Cobras’ lead to 28-4.