In the first of three games for the holiday tournament, the Lady Jags lost to the Titans of Dominion HS in a very low-scoring affair. Although the Lady Jag defense played well enough to win as it has for most of the early season, offense has been the persistent problem and cost them a winnable game this afternoon. 

After falling behind from four free throws by Dominion, Sophomore Meg Verhagen opened the scoring for Falls Church with her first basket in a varsity uniform (she had missed several games due to an early season injury). Junior Amber Ecelbarger notched her seventh "3" of the season to give the Lady Jags their only lead of the game -- a lead that lasted less than a minute as Dominion swished the final basket of the quarter and took a one point lead into the second quarter . The lady Titans rattled off ten more points that were countered by a steal and layup-and-one by Ecelbarger to keep the Jags within striking distance. Leann Loch ended the half with two baskets to put the teams at intermission with Falls Church down, 12-16.

Loch poured in five more points in the third quarter and with Ecelbarger's second "3" of the game, the score was still within six points to start the final 8-minute frame. Turnover after turnover plagued the Jaguars all game and they continued unabated into the fourth quarter to kill off several scoring chances. Seemingly, Falls Church was also out-rebounded by a 4:1 margin in the final quarter, but after four minutes, no one on either team had scored. Finally, freshman Leah Shaw hit her eighth "3" of the season on a drive-and-dish pass from the point guard to close the game to within three points. Falls Church failed to find the basket for the rest of the game, while Dominion hit seven free throws to pull away by 10 points at the final buzzer.

An unseemly number of unforced errors and precious few offensive and defensive boards doomed the Jaguar offense, but in the end the team simply had not manufactured enough decent shots to pull off a victory.

Scoring Summary: Amber Ecelbarger, 9 points; Leann Loch, 9 points; Leah Shaw, 3 points; Meg Verhagen, 2 points.