Falls Church entertained its home-court fans with a strong offensive performance this afternoon, perforating a normally stingy Lady Colonial defense to come away with its fourth conference victory of the season and seventh overall after sixteen games. The win brings the Lady Jags much closer to hosting a playoff game as they distanced themselves further away from the lowest third of the conference.

Nearly half of the first quarter expired when Falls Church landed its first baskets of the game -- both by Mia Pendleton -- who was followed by five more field goals in the last three minutes of the quarter including "3s" by Rasha Benhamida and Leah Shaw to come away with an 18-12 lead at the buzzer. The second quarter opened with Meg Verhagen feeding Mia Pendleton with her fourth basket of the game. Rasha Benhamida followed with a drive and layup and then Leah Shaw swished in two more "3s" opening up a big lead. Sierra Kennard willed in the final three baskets of the quarter, including a nice banked shot in the closing dseconds of the half to give Falls Church a 34-19 lead at intermission.

The Lady Colonials gained a slight advantage through the course of the third quarter but only gained one point in those eight minutes. TJ got much hotter in the final 10 minutes of the game, landing 20 points worth of baskets in the first five of those minutes to shrink the Lady Jag lead to seven points (49-42), but Falls Church pulled away in the final five minutes of the game. Meg Verhagen began the run with her second basket of the game, driving home a two pointer. This basket was followed by four free throws made by three different Jaguars who closed out the game with a nine-point win.

Four Lady Jags reached double digits in scoring, led by Rasha Benhamida. Leah Shaw recorded a double-double in points and rebounds while Mia Pendleton turned in a fine overall performance with her career-high game in points scored. The Three Machine collected four more beyond-the-arc baskets to build upon the conference lead with 70 three pointers in just sixteen games. Coach Pritchett will need a repeat of this offense next week as she attempts to lead her team to an upset victory and vie for a third place position in Conference 13.

Scoring Summary: Rasha Benhamida, 15 points; Leah Shaw 12 points; Mia Pendleton, 12 points; Sierra Kennard, 10 points; Meg Verhagen, 4 points; Amari Faust, 2 points.