SPARTA — The Fredericktown girls basketball team came to Highland looking to stop the bleeding. With a 1-4 record the team wasn’t quite living up to its expectations and a victory Thursday night would give them much needed momentum. They got their wish as the Freddies defeated Highland 37-32.
“We needed this win bad,” said Fredericktown head coach Dave Logan. “We have lost some close games that we were in and let get away in the end. We knew we had to come out and fight. This was a nice win for us; they are a pretty good team.”
Fredericktown got out to a nice lead in the first quarter and dominated early action. Senior post Mackenzie Logan scored the team’s first six points and it looked as if the Freddies were going to roll right over Highland. At one point in the first quarter the Freddies held a 11-3 lead. The Scots had no intention of getting run out of the gym, however, and outscored Fredericktown 10-5 in the second quarter to send the teams into halftime with Fredericktown holding onto a slim 16-15 lead.
After the half, Fredericktown came out firing and again built a healthy lead. With just over two minutes left in the third quarter, the Freddies were up by seven. Once again the pesky Scots bounced back and finished the quarter on a 5-0 run to pull within four points.
“We were up by seven or eight points a couple of times,” said coach Logan. “They are so quick, they just got to places quicker than we did. When we needed to, we got some key points, and made some stops.”
The fourth quarter saw the Scots get within two points, but Fredericktown hit its free throws down the stretch to hold onto the win.
Key to the victory was Mackenzie Logan’s scoring. Logan scored six of Fredericktown’s last 11 points en route to a 18-point performance on the evening.
“We needed to set the mark tonight,” said Mackenzie Logan. “We wanted to show that we aren’t as bad as our record. People expect us to be horrible, but as a team we know we aren’t bad. This was a huge win for us, it’s really great for our morale.”
“This is a big win for us,” said coach Logan. “They should be our biggest non-conference rival and we really wanted to win.”
Courtney Briegel was clutch for the Freddies as well scoring 10 points including the final two free throws that iced the game.
Highland was lead by Kristen Anderson who scored 13 points. Kelsey Burt added nine points for the Scots.
Fredericktown moves on to play Mansfield Christian at home on Saturday starting at 1 p.m. Highland’s next contest is on Tuesday at home versus Cardington. Action gets underway at 6 p.m.
In junior varsity play, Highland defeated Fredericktown 34-16. Highland was paced by Sam Zuber, who scored 15 points. Cassie Brown added eight points and Tarren Thacker had five. Fredericktown was lead by Devan Kennedy with five points while Lisa Earnest chipped in with three.