The Marshall Statesmen outlasted the Lady Jaguars in a close, back-and-forth contest at Marshal High School. The first quarter opened sluggishly for both sides with numerous missed shots and empty offensives. Rasha Benhamida finally opened the scoring for both sides with a basket at the 5:30 mark. Sierra Kennard swished and banked two more field goals to tie the score at 6-6 in the closing minutes. The final shot of the quarter was a high-arcing 3-pointer by Leah Shaw at the buzzer to give the Lady Jags a 9-6 lead. A nip-and-tuck second quarter ended nearly the same way with Leah Shaw driving home the go-ahead basket at the buzzer to send Falls Church to the locker room with a 22-21 lead.

Benhamida landed her third basket for Falls Church early in the third quarter but the Statesmen stormed back with six unanswered points to take another lead. Leah Shaw took over with eight points in this quarter; after hitting two free throws, she drained her 26th three-pointer and followed it with a layup-and-one conversion. Amari Faust padded the Falls Church lead with two late-quarter buckets to give the Lady Jags a 36-31 lead as they entered the final quarter.

But they couldn't hold it.. Marshal went on a quick 12-to-2 run to open up a five-point lead. Sierra Kennard's six-point quarter helped keep the Jags within striking range. Nyeisha Thompson's rebound conversion brought Falls Church within one point of a tie before Marshall ran off six more unanswered points late in the game. Amari Faust's "3" closed the Lady Jags within 4 points with half a minute to go, but they could get no closer as Marshall won it by seven.

Overall, the Jags played a strong game, marred mostly by turnovers which the Statesman converted to points far too often for Falls Church to build on or even hold a lead. Freshman Amari Faust landed five baskets tonight to eclipse 10 points for the first time in her Varsity career. Junior Leah Shaw and sophomore Sierra Kennard both enjoyed their ninth double-digit games of the season. The "Three Machine" tallied four more tonight to give the team a commanding lead in the conference with 74 three pointers after seventeen games. The loss keeps Coach Pritchett and her Lady Jags locked in fourth place in Conference 13, but still within striking distance of a second consecutive season of ten or more victories.

Scoring Summary:  Leah Shaw, 15 points; Amari Faust, 11 points; Sierra Kennard, 10 points; Rasha Benhamida, 7 points; Nyeisha Thompson, 4 points.