The First Baptist Christian Lady Crusaders could not find the finishing shooting touch to keep up with visiting Greenbrier Christian Academy as the Lady Gators won 41-29 on Tuesday.

First Baptist head coach Kristy Patton put the game in the context.

“When it comes to balancing them out, we end up not doing enough great things,” she said. “So, there’s been a lot of bright spots within games, we’re just not doing the great things consistently enough to end up with great results.”

The Lady Crusaders had a strong first quarter after successfully making an early adjustment on defense.

“In the very opening minutes of the game, we got beat by quickness,” Patton said. “We’ve been playing a man-to-man defense. We’ve been playing it well, even though we’re not terribly quick as a team.”

The approach was not working against the Lady Gators, however, which required an on-the-spot change.

“So, we went back to a zone defense, and they adjusted well,” Patton said.

First Baptist led at the end of the first period, 10-9.

The Lady Crusaders’ defensive performance was one of the bright spots for Patton.

“Really, defensively, it’s probably one of our better games,” she said. “The score doesn’t show that, but as far as doing the right things and being in the right places, we probably did that better this game than we’ve been doing.”

Patton pointed out that things were going decently on offense as well, except for one thing.

“We just weren’t finishing,” she said. “We had some great opportunities for easy layups under the basket, and we just weren’t making them. I think that probably is the big difference in the game is the fact that we didn’t finish. We had opportunities, and we weren’t able to put the ball in the basket.”

This was most notable when it came to First Baptist’s initial successful handling of the Lady Gators’ full-court press.

“That’s one of those situations where, for a while, when they executed the plan, we beat the press and we got easy layups, and then we missed,” Patton said.

“We executed what we have prepared for a couple of times, and again we didn’t finish,” she said. “Then, it seemed like after we weren’t finishing a few times that we let them get the best of us, and then we were throwing the ball away.”

Greenbrier Christian led 19-13 at halftime, outscoring the Lady Crusaders 22-16 in the second half.

Patton said she was pleased with the basketball I.Q. her girls are displaying, but acknowledged quickness is the lingering issue.

“They’re thinking the right things, just a half-step too late,” she said.

Though they had trouble getting the ball in the hoop after pulling in rebounds, the Lady Crusaders collected 42 boards for the game spread out over several different players.

Senior guard Janna Williams had seven points and seven boards while junior forward Jenny Rombs shared the team-lead in points with seven, as well.

Junior guard Hannah Fagan produced six points, seven rebounds and eight assists. Senior forward Brianna Longo and junior center Caitlin Hankins had nine rebounds apiece.

First Baptist Christian (2-7, 0-3) will host Ryan Academy on Friday.