The Fulton girls just didn't execute the way they wanted to Tuesday night at Belle.
The Lady Hornets were outscored 20-6 in the second quarter and dropped a 55-43 decision to the Lady Tigers.
Fulton led 17-14 after the first quarter.Belle made 18 free throws compared with Fulton's 15 - with 11 of Fulton's coming in the first quarter and most of Belle's occurring in the fourth quarter.
Sophomore Kier Henderson led the Lady Hornets in scoring for the second straight game, totaled 14 points, while seniors Kiah Pittman and Alex Trowbridge scored 11 and eight, respectively.
Head coach Matt Wilbers said he felt his team wasn't mentally prepared as Fulton (1-1) had difficulty of running plays properly. Belle (1-1) played press defense for the majority of the night, but he thought the Lady Hornets did a nice job countering that before Fulton trailed 34-23 at halftime.
"We ran our press breaks properly, and we shot layups," Wilbers said. "We had moments our bigs didn't cut to the right spot. Our guards put their head down and started dribbling. We didn't execute. It falls back on me to a large extent for not putting them in the position to run their stuff properly."
Going into Tuesday, Wilber admitted the team was shorthanded because of illness but still felt the Lady Hornets would have won if the mental game was strong. To fix that, he said the team needs to study before Fulton's next game at 7:30 p.m. Monday against New Haven (1-0) in the Montgomery County Tournament. The Lady Hornets are the No. 5 seed while the Shamrocks are the No. 4 seed.
"We have film to see how well we can do things even when we're not playing well," Wilbers said. "It's Week 4 of a long, long season. We have a lot more to do if we're going to beat our goals this season."