Lafayette girls basketball falls to Ray-Pec at Winnetonka Invitational
Dec. 3—The Lafayette Fighting Irish girls basketball team took on Raymore-Peculiar tonight in the Winnetonka Invitational tournament but weren't able to come away with a win, falling 69-57.
The Irish lost their first game of the tournament 56-49 to North Kansas City and were hoping to change their fortunes this time around, but the Panthers had other plans.
It was a close and competitive first half as senior forward Darcy Bowlin paced the Irish with back-to-back corner threes in the first quarter. Ray-Pec would hold a 21-17 lead after the first quarter. Lafayette would keep things rolling with a 15-point second quarter but would trail 38-32 at the break.
The third quarter was where things got out of hand as the Irish scored just one point while the Panthers would pour it on, leading by as many as 25.
As the fourth quarter started, Lafayette's shooting struggles started to end. The Irish would go on to score 24 in the final frame and whittle a massive lead down to almost single digits. Lafayette ran out of time, but head coach Craig Curtis liked the effort from his team to keep fighting every possession.
"I'll tell you what, they don't call us the Fighting Irish for nothing," he said with a smile. "We made a hard effort, and one thing is we're a team that never gives up. We just had to get back into our game. We played a great first half, but then that second half we kind of fell off in that third quarter. But they never give up and that's what it's about, not giving up."
Curtis knew that something was missing in that third quarter from the first half and knows that it will be a learning experience for his team.
"That pressure, we didn't keep the same pressure. The intensity that we had in that first half, we let up off that pressure and that intensity. So that caused them to get relaxed and be able to play their game. We didn't want that, but we allowed it to happen. We'll get better," he continued.
The Irish fall to 1-2 on the season and will be looking to rebound next game when they take on Platte County on Monday, Dec. 5.
Joe Patrick can be reached at joe.patrick@newspressnow.com.
