The Goshen Lady Eagles struggled rebounding the basketball from the opening tip and fell to the Ariton Purple Cats on Monday evening 69-34.

The Eagles have now dropped two consecutive games after they lost to G.W. Long on Friday evening.

“We struggled on the boards again,” said Eagles head coach Fred Lowery. “We had little ailments tonight and we had some illness. All that side they beat us on the boards. We have to do a better job at boxing out.”

The Purple Cats jumped out to a double-digit lead in the first quarter and trailed 22-9 at the end of one. The Eagles attempted to close the gap in the second quarter, but the Purple Cats outscored the Eagles 18-14 in the quarter and took a 40-23 lead into halftime.

The Eagles didn’t have many positives on Monday night, but Lowery believes their ball movement had some shining moments. Even with that, Lowery believes it may take some time for his team to get into shape.

The Eagles were without two starters on Monday including Cheyenne Tillery.

“We are not in shape. The fatigue set in for us and we just are not healthy,” Lowery said.
The fatigue set in in the second half, the Eagles were only able to score 11 second half points, six of which came from Bree Griffin.

Griffin led the Eagles in scoring with 14 points on the night while Jada Hall and Shamiya Griffin both had five.

The Lady Eagles will be back in action when they host the Pike County Bulldogs.

“I told the girls to forget about this game,” Lowery said. “The loss is on me, we have to regroup and come back ready to play tomorrow. We have to perform.”