The King’s Fork High School girls’ basketball team opened up the season with a frustrating but convincing 71-49 victory over the visiting team from Deep Creek on Tuesday night.

Lady Bulldogs junior center Khadedra Croker registered a triple-double to lead her team with 17 points, 14 rebounds and 15 blocks. Croker posted 12 triple-doubles last season.

King’s Fork head coach Maurice Fofana’s thoughts were focused on his team’s defensive performance.

“I was happy with the 71 points, I just wasn’t happy with the 49 that we gave up,” he said.

Fofana felt that Deep Creek got more open shots than it should have.

“A lot of stuff that we worked on, what we had practiced on, it didn’t carry over to the game,” he said.

“We are a defensive team. So when a team or a kid goes out and scores a certain amount of points on us, we normally feel some kind of way about that, and tonight was one of those nights.”

At halftime, Fofana made adjustments to improve the situation, but he still came away frustrated about the defense. Fofana also expressed frustration with the way the game was called.

“I know we’re pretty aggressive, but I think the foul count just kind of went one way sometimes,” he said.

Of the 19 points Deep Creek scored in the second half, only three came from the field. The rest were on free throws.

Fofana was encouraged by the Lady Bulldogs’ offense, however.

“The scoring was actually kind of distributed pretty good,” he said. “I was happy with that.”

Senior wing Adrieanna McCrary had 15 points, senior wing Chantel Roberts had 13, and senior shooting guard Shaikeyla Jordan had 10.

Senior wing Jasmine Wertz grabbed 14 rebounds, and junior point guard Brittany Alston had eight assists.

King’s Fork (1-0, 1-0) hosts Nansemond River (0-1, 0-1) on Friday night.