Sanders pours in 25 in Lady Wildcats' loss

The young Blacksburg Lady Wildcats gave Chesnee all it could handle before running out of gas in the second half in a season opening 63-43 loss on Tuesday.

Ninth grader Malory Sanders scored 22 of her 25 points in the first half. She hit five 3-pointers as Blacksburg trailed 32-30 at halftime.

Chesnee went on a 17-3 run to start the third quarter. Blacksburg could not get closer than 17 points the remainder of the game in their debut under coach Daryl Sanders.

"Our players started to get fatigued early in the second half. We just aren't in as good a basketball shape as we need to be right now," Sanders said. "Chesnee stepped up their defense in the second half."

Malory Sanders got into foul trouble and fouled out late in the third quarter. Without Sanders on the court, Blacksburg struggled offensively.

"I'm very proud of Malory," Sanders said. "She had one of the best nights shooting the ball that I have seen in a long time."

Seventh grader Mikala Ruffin scored nine points for Blacksburg. The Lady Wildcats have a combined team of varsity and junior varsity players for the second straight season.

"We are getting good senior leadership from our seniors Brittany Babb and Alyssa Kale," Sanders said. "We will take this game as a learning experience and use it to get better."