WINFIELD — Francis Scott Key senior Rachel Wright said coach TJ Develin has a specific message for his Eagles players when they set foot on the court.
The Eagles are sharks in the water, and they’re coming for blood every time.
“He says that and we know exactly what he means,” Wright added. “We know exactly what he’s looking for.”
FSK entered the Class 2A West Region 1 playoffs having won just three games in the regular season. Those games mattered, Wright said, but the Eagles were working for the playoffs.
That mentality paid off as the Eagles took control of Carroll County Athletic League foe South Carroll in the third quarter and erased a nine-point deficit en route winning 48-42 in a regional quarterfinal Friday.
Eagles freshman Ally Mathias scored a game-high 16 points and Wright, the team’s lone senior, finished with 12.
“I think it helps that we already beat them before and they beat us,” Mathias said. “It was kind of a 50/50 chance so it wasn’t like we didn’t have it out of range, we knew we could win this game.”
The teams played close with each other in the first quarter and FSK’s Hannah Boyer hit two 3-pointers in the frame. Her second tied the score at 10-10 with 53 seconds remaining, but a layup from SC senior Rachel Tackett gave the Cavaliers a two-point advantage.
The Eagles used a 6-0 scoring run that included a 3 from Mathias to tie score 20-20 with 2:29 to go in the half. Tackett’s jumper sparked a 9-0 scoring run for the Cavs, however, and they closed out the first half with a 29-20 lead.
FSK (4-19) held the Cavaliers to just two points in the third quarter and closed out the frame with a 32-31 lead, thanks to a layup from junior Shelby Bay. Junior Hailey Mursch’s basket with 4:09 on the clock sparked the Eagles’ run and shots weren’t falling in the hosts’ favor.
A layup from SC senior Paige Abbott cut the Eagles’ run and tied the score 33-33 in the fourth quarter. The teams traded shots and free throws but the Eagles managed to pull ahead with crucial free throws from Mursch.
A steal-turned-layup from Abbott brought the Cavs within two with less than a minute to go, but the Eagles outscored SC 5-1 down the stretch.
“Our record doesn’t necessarily represent how good of a team we actually are and we’ve been sending them that message to just believe in themselves because they can do great things," Develin said. “Learning how to deal with adversity being such a young team is finally starting, hopefully, to pay off and keep the ball rolling going forward.”
FSK travels to Liberty on Monday for a 2A West Region 1 semifinal. The Lions (15-7) earned a first-round bye and defeated the Eagles twice in the regular season.
The Cavaliers (6-17) were without three of their top players through the majority of the season — junior Bethany Fowler and seniors Kennedy Evans and Ashleigh Zepp — because of injury, and yet the team continued to make do with the circumstances. Three of SC’s six wins were county victories over Westminster, FSK, and Winters Mill.
“I have a lot of respect for Coach Develin and that’s a very well-coached team, they’re tough,” SC coach Jim Shea said. “We were up by nine at halftime and they came all the way back and won it. We’ve had a tough year, we had a lot of injuries and a lot of illnesses.… It was a really tough year for them to deal with that and I’m so proud that I’m the coach of this team.”
Francis Scott Key (48): Ally Mathias 16, Rachel Wright 12, Shelby Bay 2, Hailey Mursch 9, Hannah Boyer 6, Brooke Boyer 1, Lizzie Bertrand 2.
South Carroll (42): Sydni Carroll 3, Lauren Habighorst 9, Paige Abbott 10, Shannon McTavish 3, Grace Oetken 2, Sarah Vaught 2, Rachel Tackett 8, Sydney Hill 4.
Halftime: SC, 29-20.