On Thursday night, the Lewisburg Middle School Tigerettes (2-2) suffered their second straight loss when they dropped a heartbreaking 31-30 decision to Fayetteville Middle School at home.

Lewisburg held a 25-23 lead midway through the fourth quarter, but Fayetteville (6-6) rattled off eight straight points to seize a 31-25 advantage with 1:14 left before withstanding a late rally attempt by the Tigerettes to escape with the one-point win.

FMS shot just 24 percent (7-of-29) through the first three quarters of play prior to hitting 6-of-9 field goal attempts in the fourth period to finish 13-of-38 from the floor overall.

Visitors' leader

Point guard D.J. Horton carried Fayetteville to victory down the stretch by pouring in 13 of her game high 19 points in the fourth quarter to go along with 14 rebounds and six steals. Kevondria Carr followed Horton with six points, while Aly Hargrave and O'Nesha Nelson chipped in four and two points respectively.

Although the Tigerettes outrebounded FMS 37-27 and held a 17-8 edge on the offensive boards, Lewisburg had trouble cashing in on their extra opportunities and shot just 23 percent (11-of-47) from the floor overall despite hitting 6-of-11 field goal attempts in the fourth quarter.

Leah Hollingsworth led Lewisburg with 15 points and six steals, while Sydne Solomon tallied five points and 12 rebounds. Kathryn Donahue, Taylor Walls, Alli Hobbs, and Demariae Ingram notched four, three, two, and one point respectively for the Tigerettes as well with Hobbs pulling down 10 rebounds.

Lewisburg had trouble getting the lid off their basket at the start of the game and failed to record a field goal in the first quarter while Fayetteville inched out to a 4-1 lead.

Scoring run

The Tigerettes finally broke their shooting drought in the second period and put together a 10-5 run behind eight points from Hollingsworth to seize an 11-9 advantage late in the stanza before taking an 11-10 lead into the break.

FMS outscored Lewisburg 8-3 through the first 6:18 of the second half to pull ahead 18-14 early in the fourth quarter, but the Tigerettes responded with an 11-5 spurt, highlighted by treys from Hollingsworth and Walls, to grab a 25-23 lead.

Horton, though, stepped up during crunch time and tallied six points over a span of a 1:38 to spearhead an 8-0 Fayetteville run, which gave FMS a 31-25 lead.

After Donahue hit a short jumper to narrow the gap to 31-27, Hollingsworth hit one-of-two free throws to make it 31-28 with :14 left.

The Tigerettes then had a chance to tie the game after Fayetteville missed the front of a one-and-one, but Hollingsworth had her three-point attempt blocked before Solomon hit a bank shot as time expired in the game for the 31-30 final.