SHORT GAP, W.Va. — If defense is your cup of tea, Thursday’s Fort Hill-Frankfort affair was right in your wheelhouse.
Both defenses showed out, while both offenses struggled to find consistency as No. 5 Fort Hill held off Frankfort 37-25.
“I thought we came out hard and played really hard and really good defense,” Fort Hill head coach Mike Allen said. “That’s what we wanted to preach coming over here. We wanted to try a couple things defensively, and I think they worked tonight.”
In each of the first two quarters, there were 11 combined turnovers and four made field goals.
In the first quarter, the teams combined for five steals.
None turned into points while two led to turnovers on the other end.
In the first half, the Sentinels (5-2) shot 5 of 20 (25%) from the field while the Falcons (0-5) went 3 of 21 (14%).
“We scored before, we just gotta find a way to put the ball in the basket,” Allen said. “I don’t think we don’t know how to play offense, we need to be more confident on offense. Be more confident with our shots and shoot to know they’re going in and not shoot to hope they go in.”
Fort Hill led 6-2 after one quarter and 12-6 at halftime.
Both offenses seemed to find some rhythm in the third quarter as the Sentinels outscored the Falcons 19-13.
“I thought our defensive transition was good, so when we got steals, we turned them into points,” Allen said. “That’s what we stressed at halftime, we really talked about it’s one thing to shut a team down, but if we can’t score, it doesn’t matter. We talked about turning those steals and opportunities on defense into offense.”
Fort Hill took a 31-19 lead into the fourth.
No one on either team scored more than nine points.
Aubry Spangler led the Sentinels with nine points and six steals while Lindsay Fleming scored seven with two blocks.
“They just play hard, they’re leaders on this team,” Allen said. “They showed that tonight.”
Ava Lupettie led Frankfort with seven points and two steals while Erica Metcalf scored six points.
Fort Hill averages 47 points per game, most of it coming in a four-game win streak where the Sentinels scored 50 points in three of the four games.
Since then, Fort Hill has scored in the 30s in back-to-back games.
“Defense is all about effort,” Allen said. “I think our girls really come with a lot of effort, lot of heart, lot of desire, We need to focus a little bit more on how to score, and that takes a little more than just desire.”
Frankfort has failed to score more than 40 points in a game so far and has three games with under 30 points.
The Falcons play Pendleton County at home on Saturday at 2 p.m. before heading to Hampshire (5-4) on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.
The Sentinels host Broadfording on Monday at 6 p.m.