King’s Fork High School and Princess Anne High School’s girls’ basketball teams met in a high-profile matchup at the King’s Fork Showcase last Saturday.

Princess Anne’s Lady Cavs got the best of the Lady Bulldogs, 77-64, in what was an entertaining contest between the two teams.

The Lady Bulldogs had the hot hand in the first six minutes of the quarter, but the Lady Cavs matched with a 5-0 run in the last 30 seconds of the first quarter. After one quarter of play, the Lady Bulldogs were up 21-19. Tytionnia Smith and Cydney Nichols both poured in six first quarter points. Former Lakeland Lady Cav Makayla Dickens was a breath of fresh air for Princess Anne, as she had nine first-quarter points to help keep Princess Anne afloat.

In the first two minutes of the second quarter, the Lady Cavs took a quick 24-23 lead. The second quarter once again was back and forth for both teams as the Lady Bulldogs got a big second quarter from front-court starter Nylah Young. At the end of the second quarter, the Lady Bulldogs were a bit careless with the ball to close out the half, and the Lady Cavs capitalized, taking a 41-39 lead at the half.

Dickens led all scorers at the half with 13 points. Amesha Miller and Alexis Wethington each had nine points for the Lady Bulldogs at the half. Young added eight points.

In the third quarter, the Bulldogs couldn’t seem to get much going for themselves. The team had its lowest output of the game, with only eight third-quarter points to Princess Anne’s 16, giving the Lady Cavs a 57-47 lead. Dickens remained the leading scorer in the game through three quarters of play with 19. Miller was the leader for the Lady Bulldogs with 12 points going into the fourth quarter.

The fourth quarter belonged to the Lady Cavs again, but the Lady Bulldogs didn’t go down without a fight. Despite a strong King’s Fork comeback effort, which included cutting the lead down to as little as five points, Princess Anne didn’t allow the Lady Bulldogs to come within arm’s reach.

“I think we played good,” Lady Bulldogs coach Maurice Fofana said. “We played good but not well enough to win the game. We did some things I was happy about. Some of the things we did were self-inflicted wounds, and those are things we can fix. Overall I liked our effort and was happy with our performance.”

Dickens finished the game with 30 points and remained the top scorer for both teams. Miller led the Lady Bulldogs in scoring with 18. The pace of the game was very up-tempo, something the Lady Bulldogs anticipated going into the matchup.

“We did a good job matching them speed wise on the floor,” Miller said. “We forced them into some turnovers. We knew they play hard for 32 mins we just couldn’t finish the game in the end. I feel like we played hard and never gave up.”

The loss was the Lady Bulldogs’ third of the year. King’s Fork is slated for three conference games this week, including one against Deep Creek at home Jan. 18 at 7 p.m.