Fairbanks’ Bella Rowland knocks the ball away from a Mechanicsburg player Thursday evening. FHS teammate Emma Kugel (10) is ready to recover the turnover during the Lady Panthers’ 47-33 loss. (Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
Many fans in Panther Nation may have wondered just how the Fairbanks girls basketball team would fare against an unbeaten Mechanicsburg squad on Thursday evening.
If you take away a little more than two of the 32 minutes played, you’d say they did all right.
“It was 2 ½ minutes during which we lost our focus,” said FHS coach Landon Fraker after a 47-33 setback to the Indians.
The brief stretch during the third quarter in which the Lady Panthers (1-4) had trouble keeping control of the basketball was all the Indians needed to take over an otherwise tight battle.
Fairbanks (which will travel to Triad on Saturday) had trouble taking care of the basketball for much of the night.
FHS finished the game with 32 turnovers against Mechanicsburg’s pressure defense.
“You just can’t mimic that type of intensity during practice sessions,” said Fraker. “We didn’t do too badly against it during the first half, but we did after halftime.
“Every possession is critical against a good team like Mechanicsburg.”
The reason the Lady Panthers’ turnovers didn’t hurt all that much during the first two quarters is the fact the Indians had trouble putting the ball in the basket.
Both squads came up with numerous empty possessions – Fairbanks’ via the turnover route and Mechanicsburg on a good deal of shots that failed to drop in the basket.
The game was tied at points four, six and eight as the clock moved to less than two minutes in the initial period.
Dani Schipfer’s bucket broke the stalemate and gave the Indians a 10-8 edge.
Fairbanks got a transition basket from Elaine Lahmers and trailed, 12-11, by the end of the quarter.
Carley Lehman gave FHS a 13-12 margin during the opening seconds of the ensuing period.
The freshman again scored to put the Panthers up by a 15-14 count.
Mechanicsburg maintained leads of two and three points over the next several minutes
A free throw by Bella Rowland and a pair from the stripe by Lehman deadlocked the battle at 18-18 with 1:25 on the first-half clock.
The Indians got a basket from Kaylee Warfield and a couple of free throws by Emma Violet to take a 22-18 margin into the turn.
Mechanicsburg jumped out to a 27-20 lead in the early going of the third period.
Rowland, however, narrowed the gap to 27-23 by swishing a long three-pointer.
“Bella hasn’t been able to score a lot yet this season,” said Fraker. “That was a good shot by her.”
That two-plus minute lapse, however, quickly fell upon the Lady Panthers.
Grace Forest scored a couple of Mechanicsburg baskets, followed by shots from Violet and Morgan Hamby.
All of the sudden, a tight battle turned into a 35-23 Indian lead.
Mechanicsburg’s margin extended to 39-23 before a basket by Lillian Miller broke FHS’ scoring drought.
A layup by Kasey Schipfer, though, sent the visitors in the fourth quarter with a 41-25 lead.
The Lady Panthers kept putting up an aggressive fight during the final eight minutes of action.
Emma Kugel scored twice, once on the offensive glass, to slice FHS’ deficit to 43-31 at the 1:32 mark.
Kugel had one of her better games of the young season with seven points, nine rebounds and six blocked shots.
“Emma played well tonight,” said Fraker.
The Indians were in no hurry to score during their final possessions of the game.
Instead, they preferred to milk the clock against a Panther team that had used up all of its timeouts by the end of the third quarter.
“I had to call those timeouts to try and get us out of Mechanicsburg’s pressure defensive situations,” said Fraker.
The Indians took a 47-31 lead late in the contest on baskets by Forest and Dani Schipfer.
Ellee Bouic came off Fairbanks’ bench and scored the final basket on an offensive rebound.
Mechanicsburg
K. Schipfer 7-2-16, Forest 6-0-12, D. Schipfer 4-2-10, Violet 1-2-4, Hamby 1-1-3, Warfield 1-0-2, Kramer 0-0-0, Rausch 0-0-0, Wilhelm 0-0-0. Totals 20-7-47.
Fairbanks
Lehman 3-2-8, Kugel 2-3-7, Rausch 2-0-4, Rowland 1-1-4, Lahmers 2-0-4, M. Miller 1-0-2, L. Miller 1-0-2, Bouic 1-0-2, Pyers 0-0-0, Bookwalter 0-0-0. Totals 13-6-33.
Three-point goal: Rowland 1.
Mechanicsburg started the evening with a 26-23 victory during the junior varsity game.
Gracie Pyers led the Jr. Panthers with eight points and Anna Poling added seven.