The Dayville/Monument girls basketball team couldn’t recover from an 11-0 Four Rivers run to start their Saturday, Feb. 3, matchup as the Lady Tigers fell 37-25 to the Lady Falcons in Monument.

A three-pointer by Dayville/Monument’s Sierra May with 1:43 left in the first quarter broke the Lady Falcon run, but Four Rivers would respond with a pair of quick scores to push the lead to 16-3 with less than a minute left in the period.

The Lady Tigers would cut into that 13-point deficit in the second quarter, with a pair of Evie Schultz three-pointers helping to trim the Lady Falcon lead shrink to eight at 20-12 with just over a minute left to play in the half. The Lady Falcons would add another field goal to their total before intermission to take a 22-12 advantage into halftime.

The Lady Falcons hit a three-pointer 11 seconds into the third quarter and another at the buzzer while holding the Lady Tigers to a mere two points as the Four Rivers lead swelled to 16 at 30-14 headed into the final quarter of play.

The Lady Tigers would win the fourth quarter, outscoring the Lady Falcons 11-7, but the early deficit was just too much for the young team to recover from. Dayville/Monument would ultimately fall 37-25 for their third straight defeat.

Leading the Lady Tigers offensively was Schultz, who finished with 12 points in the game. Backing up Schultz offensively were May and JinBo Ciochetti, who finished with five points each.

Dayville/Monument girls basketball head coach Emmaleigh Larson said her team is still working hard but needs to get over the mental hump in competing this season.

“I think that they put a lot of effort out onto the court,” Larson said. “I think that they have the heart for it. I think it’s a confidence issue, knowing that they can be competitive against any team. They work hard, harder than any other team I’ve seen.

“We were very young last year, and this year we’re still young,” she added. “It’s a building year and we’ll get there.”

Larson said she wants people to know that both Dayville and Monument are building toward strong girls basketball programs.

“Dayville, Monument — both schools are putting in the work early on, at young ages, so in the upcoming years we can have more competitive teams,” she said.

The Lady Tigers have one more regular season game left on their schedule, a date with Grant Union’s junior varsity squad on Saturday, Feb. 10, in Dayville with a 1 p.m. tipoff.

Following that game, the girls make the trip to Grant Union Jr./Sr. High School for the High Desert District Tournament, which gets underway on Thursday, Feb. 15. The time and opponent for the Lady Tigers is still to be determined.