Cinderella has made her appearance at this year’s big dance. Fountain Lake, the tournament’s #7 seed, upset the #4 seed Paris Lady Eagles on Thursday afternoon by the score of 54-47. The Lady Cobras, who had previously upset the tournament’s #5 seed, the Atkins Lady Red Devils, will now move on to the tournament’s semi-finals and will take on the #1 seed, Lamar Lady Warriors on Thursday. The win against Paris also assured Fountain Lake of a spot in next week’s regional tournament that will be held at Rose Bud High School. But for Paris, after the boys’ loss on Monday, and now the girls on Tuesday, basketball for the 2019-20 season is over. And that means that for Paris’s lone senior, Paiton Forbis, it was also her last game of her high school basketball career.

Forbis returned to basketball as a senior this year and provided a very young Lady Eagles varsity team the experience and maturity that was badly needed for such an inexperienced team. As a member of championship volleyball teams at Paris, Forbis brought the winner’s mentality and work ethic to the team as an example for the younger players on the team. She has had an illustrious high school career, and she will be badly missed by the Lady Eagles next year. But as in the boys case on Monday with Nick Bazyk and Luke Trusty, Forbis will be able to look back on this year and feel good about her contributions to a young team that will be the foundation of better times to come the next two years for the Paris Ladies basketball program. With all of that said, I am sure Paiton would tell you that yesterday’s game was not how she or the rest of the team had envisioned it going or having the season come to an end.

Paris got off to a slow start in the first half. Unable to stop the inside game with the large presence of the Fountain Lake post players, coupled with many missed shots, most of which were close to or at point blank range from the basket, the Lady Eagles struggled to both score and stop the Lady Cobras. The result was a double-digit deficit at the end of the first half for Paris. It was very clear at half that if the Lady Eagles did not come out of the locker room fast in the third quarter, the game might be over soon.

But the Lady Eagles did come out of the halftime locker room quickly, with seemingly renewed intensity that translated to greater pressure on the Fountain Lake guards, as well as contesting the inside shooting of the Lady Cobras. Shots began to fall, and by the end of the third quarter, Paris had erased the Fountain Lake lead.

The Lady Eagles stretched their lead by as many as five points into the fourth quarter, but then foul trouble and the return of cold shooting hit Paris at the worse possible time, and the comeback attempt would fall just short. Fountain Lake was able to convert on most of their free throw attempts late in the game, and the result was a Fountain Lake victory that stretched out to a seven point margin. And just like that, the Lady Eagles dream of advancing in the tournament and on to next week’s regional tournament was vanished.

In many ways, the loss on Tuesday was a microcasm of the entire season. Paris got off to a slow start in November as a young and inexperienced team struggled to find their chemistry and ability to score. In January, the team returned from the break and won several games to surprise the entire league. The Lady Eagles began to move up in the conference standings, and by the end of the month, Paris was sitting in fourth place and was a threat to move into third.

But then, in February, the team went through a slump, losing games that they feel like should have been won, such as a one-point loss to a Booneville team at home that had previously won just two conference games all season. The Lady Eagles won their last two games of February and held on to fourth place and went into the district tournament as the #4 seeded team in the tournament. The roster was expanded to include freshmen from the junior high runner-up team, and now Paris had more depth to prevent opponents from stacking their defenses and putting the Lady Eagles into deep foul trouble.

Hopes were high as the team entered the conference tournament. But as past history will tell you with all tournaments, there is usually an unexpected team that does well in the tournament, and this year, it is Fountain Lake, and not the Lady Eagles as hoped.

But everyone associated with the Paris program should feel good about how this team developed and put themselves into the position of even being considered to move on to the regional tournament. The players and coaches worked extremely hard all year and continued to improve as the season went along. The up and down roller coaster season is indicative of a young team that continues to grow and experience the lessons of how to win. Next year, I expect to see the Lady Eagles take a significant step forward as the team will return most of its players who gained valuable experience this year. The Lady Eagles will return a talented team that have the winning attitude and will work hard over the off season to prepare for next year. In fact, if someone had told this reporter back in November that Paris would be in contention to go to the regional tournament by the end of February, I would have had a tough time thinking this may have been possible. It is a credit to all of the players and coaches and their hard work that the team was in the position on Tuesday to possibly advance to the regionals. I know it is tough to understand now, but, in a few days, I think the Lady Eagles will reflect on what they accomplished this season, and what is possible for the next two to three years.

So thank you Lady Eagles, and thank you Paiton Forbis for building the future of the Paris ladies basketball program. Because of you, the future is bright for Paris basketball.