The Lebanon girls’ basketball team is playing its best basketball of the season in February.
Over the weekend, Lebanon knocked off the state’s No. 1 ranked Class 5 team, Parkway North, in the semifinals of its home tournament, then took Francis Howell to the wire in the championship game before falling, 49-42.
That loss snapped a six-game winning streak by LHS, but on Monday, the Yellowjackets started a new one. Lebanon ran away with a non-conference win over Fair Grove, building a 16-2 lead midway through the first quarter and cruiseing to a 60-49 victory.
Fair Grove (14-5) was within nine in the third, and had the ball and the LHS lead down to eight in the fourth as the Eagles were within 46-38 midway through the frame, but it was as close as they would get.
Freshman Alana Findley, who entered the game averaging 13.8 points and 12.1 rebounds per game, scored a team-high 20 points to lead the Eagles. It was the sixth time this season she reached the 20-point mark.
Fair Grove entered Monday's game having won four straight and seven of its last eight games.
"About halfway through the first quarter we kind of woke up, but it took us that long and the damage had already been done," Fair Grove head coach Jennifer Talbert said. "We had a hard time, for whatever reason, in the early going,
"The second half was a lot better and we told them at halftime they just needed to be more aggressive. They were back on their heels and weren't playing tough like we normally play. They were letting Lebanon dictate everything. I told them to play their game."
Monday was the second time this season the two teams met as Lebanon beat Fair Grove at its tournament 71-64 on Dec. 3.
“Sometimes it is easy to forget how good the teams are that you are playing because you are looking at everything that you’re doing and analyzing what you’re doing well, what you need to work on and who is playing well with who,” Lebanon head coach Brendan Kelley said. “Sometimes it is easy to forget that, but they are a very good team. They are well coached and stick to their game plan. They know what is being asked of them and they carry it out.
“We are happy with the win. There is always things to work on, but to beat a team that has 14 wins on the season, you are doing something right.”
Monday’s game was the ‘Jackets fourth game in five days and Kelley said the fatigue was starting to show on Saturday when LHS faced Francis Howell in the championship game of its tournament.
“I think we started to see that fatigue during the championship game on Saturday, we just didn’t have our legs,” Kelley said. “Francis Howell was in the same boat, they had also played three games in three days.
“But a lot of our kids came up to me today and were talking about how sore they were. A couple of those games were pretty physical and it just hurts to move right now. Hopefully we can take a couple days and get some time to heal before we have to play again (Joplin) on Thursday.”
Junior Kelsey Winfrey scored a game-high 22 points on Monday to lead LHS, and the ‘Jackets got a spark off the bench from freshman Kamryn Mack who hit two 3-pointers and scored 12 points.
“She has playing well and has been seeing more minutes as we go along,” Kelley said. “She definitely is not afraid to shoot the ball on offense, but she also has pretty good handles and is looking to dish.
“She is definitely improving and that is good because anytime we have we have a player improve, it improves our team as a whole. We are moving in the right direction with her and our team.”
High school girls’ basketball
LEBANON 60, FAIR GROVE 49
on Monday, at Lebanon High School
Fair Grove 10 11 12 16 — 49
Lebanon 25 11 8 16 — 60
Fair Grove (14-5) — Alana Findley 20, Bailey Weaver 5, Casey Baker 9, Lorin Weaver 2, Makenna Hill 3, Kelli Oplotnik 9, Kaitlyn Jeter 1.
Lebanon (12-6) — Morgan Andersen 7, Jaiden Offutt 7, Kelsey Winfrey 22, Mikalyn Callahan 10, Kamryn Mack 12, Faith Alwardt 2.
