The Fulton Lady Hornets shied away when it came to challenging the Jefferson City Lady Jays.
No. 2 seed Jefferson City opened up an 11-point halftime lead and pulled away by outscoring Fulton 15-4 in the third quarter, ultimately downing the No. 4 Lady Hornets 55-41 on Saturday afternoon in the third-place game of the 21st-annual California Tournament.
Fulton, suffering back-to-back losses for the first time this season, slipped to 8-4.
"We almost played tentative because Jefferson City is so physical and so big," Lady Hornets head coach TJ Quick said. "When you play a team like that, you have to be ready to go.
"We played decent, but not good enough in the first three quarters. I felt like we took possessions off and that led to easy baskets for them."
Fulton was down 17-11 after one quarter and trailed 28-17 at the break. The Lady Jays then used their dominant third quarter to extend their advantage to 43-21.
The Lady Hornets broke out for 20 points in the fourth quarter, but it came too late to overtake Jefferson City.
"We can do it (score like that), but we have to be at that pace all of the time," Quick said.
Junior forward NaShayla Brandt guided Fulton with 16 points and junior guard Sloane Totta supplied 13.
Megan Foster connected for a game-high 17 points for the Lady Jays, while Nicole Martin had 16.
The Lady Hornets return home to square off against Eldon in a non-conference encounter at 6 p.m. Monday at Roger D. Davis Gymnasium. Fulton then travels to Jefferson City next Friday night for another non-conference matchup against Helias.
"This (Saturday's game) was a good tune-up because we have a big week coming up," Quick said. "This is the speed we have to play at."