The Archbishop Carroll Lady Pats fell to Audenried Charter on Sunday at Cardinal O’Hara High School.
“We need to start in practice,” head coach Renie Shields said. “We need to play from start to finish in practice and make that the habit we want.”
The Lady Pats did not get out to a hot start in the contest as they went down 21-12 after the first quarter.
The struggles in the first half continued for the Lady Pats and they trailed by 13 at halftime by a score of 36-23.
Alexis Eberz could not get rolling in the first half and only accumulated two points. Kayla Eberz, on the other hand, came out firing and was tied for the team’s most points with six.
In the second half, the Lady Pats caught fire. Alexis Eberz found a groove and Kayla Eberz continued to impress.
The third quarter seemed to be a turning point for the Lady Pats, which was followed by a bench warning to the Audenried head coach, but they still trailed by 11 points.
On the other side of the action, Audenried star Shayla Smith had 13 points going into the third quarter. During the game, Smith was defended by Abbie McFillin.
“She’s really good off the dribble,” McFillin said. “I knew I had to not let her get the ball the whole game, but we knew she was gonna get her points.”
The fourth quarter started the same as the third but shifted when Carroll knocked down a couple of shots to get the game within five. After a couple of possession changes, the Lady Pats had the ball with about 40 seconds remaining. Kayla Eberz barreled home a triple from the wing and proceeded to steal the ball right back. This effort was fantastic but it was not enough to push Carroll to the finish line as they would go on to lose the ball game by a score of 60-56.
“My teammates push me to be the best I can,” said leading scorer Kayla Eberz.
The Lady Pats look to the Philadelphia Catholic League regular season with only one preseason tournament ahead of them on January 5. They start the PCL season at home on January 7.