The high school girls basketball team suffered a narrow defeat last week, falling behind Northwest Christian by a final score of 54-47 during their lone match-up for the week on Tuesday, Jan. 26.

As of this writing, the Lady Falcons had a busy schedule ahead of them this week, beginning with a home game against Page on Tuesday, Feb. 2. The team is scheduled to be on the road this Friday, Nov. 5, for a game hosted by Chino Valley, and again next Tuesday, Feb. 9, for a game hosted by Wickenburg. Both of those matchups are scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m.

This past week’s game against Northwest Christian saw the local ladies playing down through the first two quarters, then up through the back half. They were outscored by Northwest 11-6 in the first quarter and 12-6 in the second. After a halftime pep talk, they umped ahead of Northwest by a score of 22-19 in the third and 13-12 in the fourth. The late-game push wasn’t enough to make up all of the lost ground, however, resulting in the close 54-47 final outcome.

The Lady Falcons were led by Soliel Smith and Sydney Loyet this outing with 17 and 16 points on the scoreboard, respectively. Zoey Lipps also made it into the double digits, scoring 10 for the local squad.

Given the turbulent nature of the winter season thus far, head coach Mandy Baca said her ladies managed a solid showing.

“We played well for our first game of the season,” Baca said. “A couple of injuries and a grade issue kept our bench small, [with] six players.

“We had a rocky start and had to shake some jitters off, but played much better team defense in the second half. Our offense seemed to run more fluid as well.”