The Porter’s Chapel Academy Lady Eagles fell to Riverfield Academy 52-28 in the first round of the District 3-AAA girls’ basketball tournament on Tuesday, ending their season with a 9-15 record.

Although it was a losing record, it was also a major improvement and a step forward for the program.
The nine wins this season is more than PCA mustered in the last eight years combined. Just two years ago, PCA had slumped into a 42-game losing streak before finally knocking off Discovery Christian.

The turnaround that coach Amanda Yocum and the Lady Eagles have seen this season is nothing short of monumental.

PCA was much more competitive in its losses and came up just short in several of them. They lost their final three games, but two of those were by a total of eight points and one was decided in overtime.
Tuesday’s loss to Riverfield was a much more lopsided result, but even then the final score can be a bit more misleading.

Yocum said the team’s shooting was off from where it had been the last few games, which made a big difference in the outcome. The Lady Eagles only went into the half down four, but a 22-5 run in the third quarter blew open what had been a close game.

“We had some turnovers that hurt, I think that’s where it got away from us with about four minutes left in the third,” Yocum said. “That made the difference of giving them that 10 or 12 point lead and putting it out of reach.”

Though an end to the season like that can be hard to stomach, Yocum is still very optimistic about the team she will return next year. The Lady Eagles lose four seniors, three of whom started. However, thanks to Yocum utilizing her bench players often, they will still have plenty of floor experience.

“We have a great group coming back,” Yocum said. “The senior class got us to where we are right now, and we have some 10th graders I think that will step up and do really good things for us in the next couple of years.”