The No. 18 Eufaula Lady Ironheads fell to the No. 14 Rejoice Christian Lady Eagles 48-31 Saturday for the first game of the season at the Eufaula Middle School gym. It was a game that Eufaula obviously had to knock off the dust from the long holiday break. Rejoice improved to 6-4 while Eufaula fell to 6-3.

Madison Hunicutt was hot from the tip for the Lady Eagles as they took advantage of Eufaula’s slow start. Hunicutt, Seah Heiskell and Casidy Hurst used their quickness, speed and great shooting to take a 19-8 lead to end the first period.

The Lady Eagles forced Eufaula to take high percentage shots and outrebounded the Lady Ironheads in the second period as they held them to just two points while scoring 14 to go into the halftime break up 33-10.

Eufaula came out the second half with more enthusiasm. Lauren Gray, Hannah Needham and Ayana Seirs did a better job of bringing the ball up court while Bumgarner, Ariel Greenlee, Olivia Hamby, Kristee Thompson and Ava Neill battled the Lady Eagles in the paint and outscored Rejoice 11-6 in the third period.

Eufaula added 10 more points but the large deficit to start the game was too much to overcome as Rejoice Christian held on to a 48-31 victory.

Johna Bumgarner was the only Eufaula Ironhead in double digits with 16 points and no other Eufaula player had more than five points.

Hunicutt led the Lady Eagles with 14, Heiskell eight and Hurst added nine points.