FORT SCOTT — Facing a ranked team on the road for the second time in a week, the Chanute Blue Comets girls lost to the Fort Scott Tigers, 60-49, on Friday night in SEK League hoops action.
“Credit to Fort Scott. They made shots,” Chanute head coach Dustin Fox said. “We limited the players we wanted to limit. We only let (Abbie) Gorman take five shots, but she made four of them. That’s the way it’s going to be sometimes. I was proud of our effort and the way we executed our gameplan. We didn’t shoot it great and in the second half, we got the lead down to three. We’re right there knocking on the door.”
Fort Scott pulled away in the second quarter to go into halftime up 32-21. The Blue Comets trimmed the deficit to as little as a point in the third quarter before another surge by the Tigers put Chanute away.
Friday’s loss came on the heels of the Blue Comets’ Tuesday loss to Girard, another ranked opponent that delivered Chanute its first defeat of the year.
“The two games we’ve lost are on the road to state-ranked, veteran-heavy teams,” Fox said. “Those experiences are going to be very valuable.”
Chanute connected on 29.8% of its shots while allowing Fort Scott to shoot 51.1%. At the rim, Chanute was 8-of-22.
“The biggest thing against Fort Scott was that we missed shots at the rim we needed to finish,” Fox said. “We missed a ton of shots near the rim to end the first quarter. We missed nine in a row. We’ve got to find a way to put the ball in the basket more consistently once we get it where we need it to.”
Gorman and Laurali Clark led Fort Scott with 13 points while Raylee Cowan and Jacee Rogers chipped in 11 apiece.
For the Blue Comets, freshman Kate Uhner scored 17 points on 5-of-14 shooting.
“I thought she did a great job of being aggressive and looking to make plays,” Fox said. “Sarah is getting a lot of attention from the other teams right now and Kate is stepping up. She had a gutsy performance in that environment.”
Chanute now stands at 4-2 overall and 0-1 in SEK League play going into Christmas.
“We feel good about where we’re at,” Fox said. “We knew going on the road against those two teams was going to be a challenge. We got better with those experiences. We’re a better basketball team for having those games. We actually feel really blessed to play teams like that early so we can get a better feel of what we need to do. We’ve got a coachable group that sticks together and is excited about the process.”
Up next
Chanute heads south on Jan. 6 to face Labette County in Altamont.
“Anytime you have a program with the tradition Labette County has, they’re not going to roll over,” Fox said. “I know they’ve had some struggles. But they’re working hard. We’re not in a position to look over anybody.”
