Fairview coach Mary Hartline draws up a play during a timeout.
HARTSELLE – The Fairview Lady Aggies are without senior center Abbi Taylor, an all-county and all-area performer, who is recovering from foot surgery she had in April. Fairview began its play day season on Thursday in Hartselle. The Lady Aggies fell 44-41 to Lawrence County at the old Hartselle High School gymnasium, then went to the new facility, running past Colbert County 66-35.
"Everyone is having to step up their game in Abbi's absence," coach Mary Hartline said following the Colbert County game. "A lot are going to have to learn to contribute without her in the lineup."
Something Fairview does well, with or without Taylor, is tempo. Forcing the opposition to speed up their game, Fairview got things going well with Colbert County, due to tempo and the play of another valuable member on the squad, senior point guard Taylor Yeager.
Yeager, who recently announced she is committed to play college ball at University of Alabama at Huntsville, displayed her scoring ability with six consecutive baskets that ignited Fairview to a 20-6 lead. Her sixth basket in this span was a three from the top of the circle with 12:14 left in the half.
Fairview opened with a 12-0 lead three minutes into the game, thanks to Yeager and baskets by Abby Schnitkker and McKinna Yearwood from long distance.
Colbert County, who is led by senior Chelsea Leach, did make a comeback and trailed 25-20 at the 4:40 mark. The Lady Indians had a 14-5 swing on the scoring, led by Leach with 10 in the segment.
But the rest of the half was controlled by Fairview. Schnittker got a basket off a good pass from Yearwood, and two shots made by Peyton Golden extended the margin for the Lady Aggies to 31-20 as the half ended.
Yeager had 18 by intermission. In the second half, others provided valuable contributions, especially reserve guard Daylia Dean. Dean nailed two treys and drove to the basket on a layup with Fairview breaking the game open.
The Lady Aggies were ahead 42-28 with 13:33 on a three by Dean. Moments later, Dean drove in on Leach and hit a shot to make the score 53-32. She followed that with a baseline trey on the left side and Fairview led 56-32 with 5:20 to play.
Dean scored 11 in the game, getting three from long range. Schnittker delivered 12 to the tally as Fairview showed consistency, putting 31 on the board in the first half and 35 for the final 20 minutes with a running clock. Yeager accounted for a game-high 25 points, in comparison to 13 for Leach. Leach had only one field goal in the second half against the quick Fairview pressure defense.
Katie Ball contributed on both ends of the floor for Hartline's team as did Taylor Vincent and Abby Hogeland. Fairview had eight for the day with Jordan Moore not available due to a prior commitment in softball.
Hartline and her team will venture into different areas the next two weeks. They will be a part of a play day series next weekend at Jacksonville State University and will head to Middle Tennessee State University the following week.
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