DAPHNE, Alabama — A fourth-quarter surge by the Lady Pirates capped with a 3-point play by Raven Priolo tied the score with Daphne 32-32 with 1:14 left in the game. But the Lady Trojans added three more points while checking the Fairhope offense which failed to get off another quality shot. Daphne held on to win 35-32.

The 6A Area 3 loss left the Fairhope girls at 9-8 overall and 0-1 in the area. Daphne improved to 11-5 and 2-0 with the win.

“It was a big win for us. We came out ready to play,” Daphne head coach Tereance Pinkney said. “Conditioning I think was important. After the Williamson game, we started getting more running in and I think it paid off tonight. Did a lot of situational stuff like playing one team behind by 10 with five minutes to go, bonus situations and just learning how to play together. Area time is the most important and I told them that’s what matters.”

Fairhope head coach Jessica Webb said the long break over the Holidays between real games (10 days) showed as her team seemed rusty on offense until the final minutes when they came back to tie.

“We played good defense, but unfortunately we made some poor decisions on offense in the second half and had too many missed opportunities in a close game between two good teams.

“We did a good job of containing them off the dribble, taking charges, boxing out, but offensively we would get down to the other end and throw the ball away — forced and unforced. So we have to do a better job of making decisions on offense. The layoff hurt. We had not played since the 30th.”

Daphne got off to a strong start to lead 14-10 to begin the second period and then extended the margin to 28-21 at the half. Fairhope stayed within seven points 28-21 to start the fourth and then began to chip away building to an 11-4 run which culminated with Priolo’s spin-move and foul shot trey to tie at 32. But Daphne would need just one more field goal by Amber Yelding in the final quarter to close the deal.

Kristen Hinton led Daphne with 11 points, Yelding had 10 and Cherese Hunter nine for the Trojans. Fairhope’s Megan Dowdy led all with 12 and teammate Anna Raley added eight.

Fairhope was 5-for-5 at the line in the fourth period but 7-of-12 overall.

Daphne was 9-of-23 overall and 5-for-8 in the fourth.

Daphne will visit another Area 3 rival in Robertsdale tonight with a 6 p.m. tipoff set and travel to Bay Minette Tuesday for a 6 p.m. game at Baldwin County High.

Fairhope will host Baker tonight at 6 p.m. and travel to RHS Tuesday at 6 p.m.