MORGANTOWN — The Trinity Christian girls’ basketball team (17-7) fell 58-35 to Frankfort (15-7) in the regional championship Thursday night in Sabraton, ending the Warriors’ season
On Jan. 21, these two teams met in a regular season match-up that saw a very similar result as Thursday’s, with FHS winning 54-30.
Coming into the regional, the Warriors were riding a win streak of six games in which they averaged 65.5 PPG and only allowed 46.3. With their recent success and shooting, expectations were higher than they were the previous time these two teams met for Mike Baldy’s team.
Fortunately for the Falcons, TCS couldn’t take advantage of playing on its home floor as scoring seemed impossible early on. Both teams struggled in the first few minutes, but Arin Lease came alive for FHS to score 8 of her game-high 22 in the opening quarter. Her team led 14-2 at the end of one. TCS shot 1 of 10 in the quarter.
The second opened similarly, the Falcons took advantage on the glass and used its length to make offense very difficult to be found by TCS. Just under halfway through the quarter, Kyndel Kisner gave TCS its first triple of the game and brought them within 11 at 20-9, and although still a bit cold from the floor, the Warriors found themselves down by just 8 going into halftime.
The third quarter was the turning point of the game as FHS exploded for 20 points in the period. Lease led her team with 16 while TCS only had 17 as a team. By the end of the third, the Warriors faced a deficit that seemed too much at 42-20. The length of the Falcons continued to give fits to TCS as they held on to take home the regional championship 58-35 and secure the No. 5 seed in the Class AA girls’ state basketball tournament.
“The bummer for tonight was definitely that we didn’t shoot it well and we didn’t pass it well,” Warriors head coach Mike Baldy said. “I thought our gameplan defensively was good and we executed well early and even into halftime. To begin the third, we had an instance on defense where half the girls go 2-3 and half go our other defense and they hit a three from the corner and it basically blew up from there.”
Trinity finishes the year with a record of 17-7. Sophomore standout Jenna Barnett averaged 15.2 points per game and led her team in nearly every statistical category. Although she struggled in Thursday’s game, Barnett will be one to watch in the season to come.
Four seniors will say farewell to the hardwood for TCS. Avonna Brown, Maggie Mercure, Olivia Austin and Katrina Hyde all played their final game for Trinity.
“First and foremost is the four wonderful seniors, they’re all great basketball players but they’re better people than they are basketball players. Hopefully they come back one day and are part of the program,” Baldy said. “As far as what we have coming back, it’s a lot. We have four good sophomores, a good junior in Sophia Pancoast, we need to have a good summer and we will be back.”
Frankfort (15-7)
Arin Lease 15 2-2 22 Halley Smith 8 5-6 12 Grace Scott 8 0-0 10 Larae Grove 10 2-2 6 Emily Smith 4 0-0 2 Mackenzie Long 1 0-0 2
Trinity (17-7)
SuCora Brown 4 1-2 9 Jenna Barnett 17 1-4 8 Avonna Brown 6 2-2 6 Maggie Mercure 7 0-0 5 Kyndel Kisner 7 1-2 4 6 0-0 3
Three-pointers: Trinity 4 (Barnett, Kisner, Mercure, Lynch 1 each); Frankfort (Smith 1)
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