JOHN DAY — PJ Davis had herself a game. 

The Dayville/Monument junior finished with 23 points, but her team ultimately fell 54-39 to the Adrian Lady Antelopes in the opening round of the High Desert League district basketball tournament on Thursday, Feb. 16. 

The Lady Tigers nursed an early 3-2 lead before the Lady Antelopes went on an 8-0 run to take a 10-3 lead. Dayville/Monument would continue to grind, cutting the Adrian lead to 12-8 after one quarter of play. 

The Lady Antelopes put it together in the second quarter, outscoring the Lady Tigers 15-5 in the period to take a 29-13 lead into halftime. Adrian opened the third quarter on a 12-1 run, finishing the period with a commanding 45-21 advantage headed into the final quarter of play. 

The Lady Tigers would try to make things interesting in the fourth, outscoring Adrian 18-9 in the quarter and making the game seem much closer than the score indicated. The Lady Tigers finally worked out their offensive and defensive jitters, but there just wasn’t enough time left on the clock to take advantage.

The furious rally attempt came up short and the Lady Tigers saw their district championship hopes vanish. 

Leading the Lady Tigers on offense was Davis, whose 23 points still wasn’t enough for her team to advance. Evie Schultz contributed seven points to the Lady Tiger cause, and Sierra May added five.

Dayville/Monument head girls basketball coach Shyanne Winters said the team hasn’t really seen the level of competition they are seeing now, and that may have contributed a bit to their slow start in the first half. “I think our nerves got to us a little bit in the second quarter, but we came out and finished as strong as we could,” she said.

Winters also spotlighted the team’s fourth quarter effort while wishing they had a little more time to chip away at the Lady Antelope lead. “In that fourth quarter, we tried but we just ran out of time,” she said.

The Lady Tigers have one more game in the 2022-23 season. The team will play the loser of Prairie City/Burnt River and Huntington at 8 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 16, at Grant Union High School.