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Sports

Lake Shore Girls Basketball Falls to Fitzgerald

Turner's 30-point effort for Spartans proves too much for the Shorians.

The Fitzgerald Spartans beat up on the Shorians on Friday night, running away with a 59-32 victory.

"I'm very happy with the way we played," said Fitzgerald coach Sam Hines of his team's first win of the year. "I thought they definitely improved over the first game of the season."

Spartan guard Dajourie Turner led all scorers on the court, racking up 30 points in four quarters of play—not resting once during the entire game. Turner's effort led to debilitating charley horses in both legs and dehydration following the game.

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"This is the first time this has happened to me," Turner said.

Despite the disparity in the final score, the Shorians played a tough first quarter that only saw them down by four points, 13-9, after the first eight minutes of play. The Spartans didn't begin to pull away until the second quarter.

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The Shorians actually had the lead at 9-8 in the first quarter before falling behind for the rest of the game.

The Spartans started to show their stuff early in the second period, moving to a 10-point lead at 19-9 with 3:54 left in the half when Turner took the ball end-to-end for an easy layup.

The Shorians managed to chip away at that lead slowly, holding the Spartans scoreless until the final minute of play, when Turner again moved the ball the entire length of the court for another layup to make the score 21-15.

Freshman forward Carly Vargo managed to knock in a free throw in the waning seconds of the half to cut the lead to 21-16 for the Spartans.

"It was a tighter game in the first half," Hines said. "We had more room to move in the second half."

Fitzgerald started scoring early and often when play resumed in the third quarter.

Turner tossed in a long three-pointer 20 seconds into the second half—and she didn't stop for much of the remainder of the game. At 6:21 she added a layup despite being fouled on the shot and a few minutes later she added another three-pointer to increase the Spartans lead to 30-16.

The Spartans continued the offensive onslaught in the fourth quarter, moving to a 38-22 lead after Turner was taken down hard as she drove to the basket resulting in two foul shots.

For their part, the Shorians never stopped fighting, with Vargo adding a put-back jumper at 6:44 and senior guard Sara Coppola adding a three-pointer a minute later to make the score 42-27.

Unfortunately for Lake Shore, the Spartans never really let them get an offensive rhythm.

"Our defense was pretty good, and I liked how aggressive we were," Hines said. "I think with every game we play we'll get better."

Despite their convincing win, Hines said he wasn't entirely happy with his team's play.

"Our goal is always 30 points (for the other team) a game," he said. "So they'll be running because they didn't hit that goal."

Up next for the Spartans is tournament play at Dakota.

Lake Shore is 1-2 overall.

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