NEW PARIS — National Trail’s girls’ basketball team split a pair of road games last week, falling to county rival Preble Shawnee and knocking off Cross County Conference foe Bethel.
The Blazers, who lost 49-27 at Preble Shawnee on Tuesday, Jan. 24, and beat the Bees on Thursday, are now 9-8 overall and 4-4 in the CCC.
Against Bethel, junior JaLynn Byrd led all scorers with 17 points and senior Payten Laird added six, while sophomore Savanna Abner and freshman Makena Laird had four each.
Evan Byrd and Davlyn Werner chipped in two each, including big free throws down the stretch.
“Davlyn and Kelsey (Patrum) stepped into more minutes tonight with injuries and foul trouble and contributed especially at the defensive end,” Trail coach Troy Ferguson said. “JaLynn really did a nice job stepping into a role where she was going to do everything in her power to make sure we won that game. It was a great team win.”
Trail and Bethel were tied at 7-7 after the first quarter and the Bees took an 18-15 lead at halftime.
Trail rallied to take a 24-21 lead after three quarters and held on for the win.
Against Preble Shawnee, the Blazers took a 10-9 lead after the first quarter, but a scoring drought that lasted the entire second quarter proved to be too much for Trail to overcome.
Shawnee outscored the Blazers 17-0 in the quarter to take control of the game. Shawnee extended its lead to 19 (36-17) after three.
Makena Laird paced the Blazers with 10 points, while Payten Laird added five. Shawnee was led by Nicole Sims, who scored a game-high 12 points. Brenna Woodard added eight for the Arrows.
The Lady Blazers were scheduled to host Dayton Christian on Tuesday. Trail will host Covington on Thursday at 6 p.m. and visit Tri-County North on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. to be followed by the boys game at 7 p.m.
