The Fayette girls closed the gap to three points with seconds left in the game on Friday, but couldn’t come all the way back in a 52-47 loss to Brookfield.

The Falcons trailed 29-3 early in the second quarter and 36-13 at halftime in the first game back from winter break.

“I think it’s a combination of nerves and being a little rusty,” coach Valerie Foland said.

“We’ve tried to put realistic situations in our practices. Yesterday, we played a full basketball game, four quarters, to try to get out that rust.”

Jordyn Ball had the only basket of the first quarter as Fayette fell behind 22-2. Laci Fuhlage scored six points in the second quarter to help jump start the Falcon offense.

“I will say in the first two quarters, I do think good shots were put up,” Foland said. “They really weren’t falling, but they were good shots to take.”

Fayette trailed 40-15 early in the third quarter when Abbey Conrow’s 3-pointer started a 12-0 Falcon run. Sydney Spielbuaer made a shot and Conrow found Emma Chew under the basket for two points. Conrow’s third triple of the game cut the lead to 40-27 heading into the final quarter.

“We started hitting shots, the girls started talking, we started blocking out,” Foland said. “All of the fundamentals started to click, which progressed into that momentum.

“That’s what I’ve been preaching this whole season, is playing fundamental basketball and letting the rest of take care of itself. We’re good for that for about two quarters of a game, but you have to do that for four quarters.”

Fayette was still down 48-35 in the fourth when Conrow made two more 3-pointers sandwiched around a basket from Shay’Aira Lee-McQuitty.

Conrow’s final basket cut the lead to 50-47, but the Bulldogs knocked down a pair of free throws to end Fayette’s hope.

Conrow scored 19 of her 24 points in the second half. Fuhlage finished with eight. Kenzie Felten led the Falcons with six rebounds.

“They did what they exactly what I expected them to do, which is to be a team that fights back,” Foland said. “But then it’s frustrating to constantly have to do the fighting back when we can compete with that team, and we could have been in a different situation if we had played better in the first two quarters.”