King’s Fork High school’s girls’ basketball team took on St. John Neumann-Goretti, a nationally ranked team, in the Boo Williams/Ronald Curry Christmas Classic.

The Lady Bulldogs had their hands full Wednesday evening as they took on the Lady Saints. KF took their first loss, 64-46, at the Boo Williams Sportsplex.

It was a good test for the Lady Bulldogs as the Lady Saints are regarded amongst the best teams in the nation. In fact, in 2015 they were voted the number one team in the USA Today Sports Super 25. The Lady Bulldogs did not play their best game.

“I don’t think we played well,” Lady Bulldogs coach Maurice Fofana said. “If we would have played well, we would have given ourselves a chance to win. It was a lot of self-inflicted wounds.”

Defense and missed shots seemed to be the issues for the Lady Bulldogs Wednesday evening. The Lady Bulldogs feel it was more so what King’s Fork did or did not do than the Lady Saints imposing their will.

For the game, the Lady Bulldogs had 12 turnovers, the fewest in a game this season. However, King’s Fork did have its best shooting performance from the field. There were a lot of high-level spectators and college coaches to watch both teams that may have attributed to some of King’s Fork inconsistent play.

“We weren’t on our best game,” Fofana said. “That’s not to take anything away from the other team, because they are good. We are good as well, but if we don’t play like that every night, then it is going to be hard to get to where we want to go. At the same time, we need these kinds of games to help prepare of for the quality opponents we will see in the second half of the season.”

Amesha Miller led the way for the Lady Bulldogs with 14 points.

The loss puts the Lady Bulldogs at 7-1 on the season. Last year the team won 20 straight games before losing its first.

The Lady Bulldogs are featured in the Gold Bracket of the Holiday tournament, which included teams like the Lady Saints, Princess Anne and other stout girls’ basketball programs.

Fofana said they could have played in a lower bracket and won, but he felt playing tougher teams would be better for the team in the long run.

“We are at a point where we want to keep getting better, playing against tougher teams and being in situations and/or close games that are going to make us better,” Fofana said. “If we never been in tough situations, it won’t keep the kids motivated to work harder.”

Fofana is eager to see how his team responds after its first loss. They will play at least one more game at the Holiday Classic, but Fofana believes this loss will make the team better. Last year the Lady Bulldogs went into the new year 10-0.