Mansfield Christian falls to Danbury in district semifinals

WILLARD — The free throw line was unkind to Mansfield Christian.

The fourth-seeded Flames connected on just 8-of-24 free throw attempts and couldn’t dig out of an early hole in a 44-35 loss to second-seeded Lakeside Danbury in a Division IV district girls basketball semifinal game Thursday at Willard’s Robert L. Haas Gymnasium.

“It was bad,” MCS coach Megan Young said of the foul shooting. “Normally we can knock them in.

“Unfortunately, three of our starters had the flu yesterday and today and we were playing a little gassed. … We weren’t able to execute on offense the way we needed to.”

The fatigue showed early as Mansfield Christian (14-7) fell behind 14-4 after the first quarter. Danbury sharpshooter Kamil Stephens connected on three 3-pointers in the opening period and scored 14 of her game-high 19 points in the first half.

“She can shoot it,” Young said of Stephens. “Her and (Maria Maringer) were the two that we knew we had to keep an eye on. They were really good at getting their shots off fast before we could get there.”

The Lakers led 25-16 at the half but the Flames came to life in the third. Mansfield Christian outscored Danbury 12-6 in the period and trailed 31-28 heading to the fourth.

“We gave ourselves a chance,” Young said. “Our goal was to work it into our big Kyleah (Jones) and we started doing a good job of it in the second half.”

A junior center, Jones scored eight of her team-high nine points in the third. She split a pair of free throws with 3:48 remaining in the third to cut Danbury’s lead to 28-24. A 3-pointer by freshman Zy Davis with 2:42 to play in the period cut the Danbury advantage to 30-27.

The Flames trailed 31-28 going to the fourth, but Stephens connected on her fifth and final 3-pointer with 6:57 remaining to give the Lakers a 34-28 advantage. Danbury outscored MCS 13-7 in the fourth.

Maringer backed Stephens with 15 points for the Lakers.

Jones had 19 rebounds to go with her nine points for MCS. Davis added eight points, while Noelle Beare, Raegan Standridge and Alexis Rippel each had six.