COLFAX — The girls of Colfax-Mingo started out hot, but could not keep it going against the Eddyville-Blakesburg Rockets on Monday night. Despite getting 24 points out of senior Nicolette Husson, the Tigerhawks struggled mightily on defense and fell to the Rockets 63-39.

The Tigerhawks came out of the gate looking like a team that was ready to challenge. They scored the game’s first seven points before the Rockets started into their full-court press halfway through the first quarter. Jena Teed drained a three to put the Tigerhawks up 10-5. After that, the teams went back and forth to finish the quarter out with Colfax-Mingo ahead 13-12.

Trouble reared its ugly head for the Tigerhawks yet again, however. The Rockets’ full-court press forced seemingly countless Cofax turnovers in the second quarter. The girls scurried to break the press and continued to throw the ball either to the Rockets or out of bounds, making it nearly impossible to stay in the game. The Rockets played a drive-and-pass game on offense and it started to really flow once their defense stepped up.

"It’s really tough because one turnover turns into two, three, four and we have just got to make sure we break that," C-M coach Brandon Smith said. "Early on we broke it, but then again one turnover turns into a bunch. All of a sudden we’re throwing the ball into the stands, we’re lobbing it up, and once that happens we just lose our shot."

The Rockets knocked down most of their open jumpers in the second quarter and ended the half on a 15 to five run.

“If you look at Eddyville-Blakesburg, they’re a very solid ballclub. Any one of their girls, you can check out their stats, are extremely good shooters,” Smith said. “Coming into tonight, they had two girls hitting over 40 percent plus two more shooting about 35 percent. It’s a struggle for us defensively for us to cover all of that.”