Shooting struggles and holding onto the ball led to the Fort Mill girls’ basketball team falling to the Northwestern Trojans in their last game before their Region 3-5A schedule begins.
Fort Mill fell 40-35 to Northwestern Wednesday evening as they dropped to 6-11 on the season. The boy’s team didn’t play as this game was already part of the girl’s schedule. The Fort Mill girls have one more non-region game rescheduled for Jan. 26 at Spring Valley, which was postponed from an earlier date.
The Jackets had unofficially 20 turnovers in the game, as Northwestern used a 7-2 run to open the fourth quarter turning a one-point lead into a six-point lead.
“We turned the ball over way too much,” said Fort Mill head coach Heather Klipa. “Shots didn’t go down for us.”
Northwestern outscored Fort Mill 9-5 in the fourth quarter as the Jackets hit just 2-of-14 shots in the period. Fort Mill and Northwestern both opened the game starting slow as the Jackets missed their first eight shots before Reagan Reyes hit a 3-pointer.
Fort Mill surged ahead in the second quarter as they hit three 3-pointers and took a 19-15 lead to the locker room at the half. Northwestern fought back in the second half and opened the third quarter on a 6-3 run as the Jackets hit just one of their first seven shots.
Turnovers kept momentum going Northwestern’s way as they tied the game at 24-24 with 2:45 left in the quarter and outscored the Jackets 15-11 in the quarter to take a one-point lead.
Fort Mill was led by Clare Moore who scored 10 points in the game. The Jackets did get back Dylan Harder and Nadia Dial who both have missed the majority of the season thus far with leg injuries. Both played and scored in limited minutes Wednesday.
The Fort Mill boys’ and girls’ basketball teams will open their region schedule Friday on the road at Boiling Springs.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
