After one quarter of play, things did not look well for the Plains Trotters basketball team Saturday night against the Darby Lady Tigers in Plains.

They fell behind 16-5 after the first eight minutes of play, in large part to a swarming, aggressive Darby defense. 

But the Trotters shook it off and began chipping away at the lead over the next three quarters before catching Darby and pulling out a 41-40 victory in a thriller of a game at the Plains High gym. 

In the boys' game, the Horsemen also fell behind early but were not able to match the comeback mounted by the Trotters as they fell to the Tigers 40-34 before a big and vocal crowd. 

The Trotters’ first quarter points were all scored by sophomore forward Ava Lawyer, but Plains had no answer for Darby forward Hadley Heiland whose rebounding and scoring helped the Lady Tigers take their initial lead. 

Lawyer got help from her teammates in the second quarter as they outscored the Lady Tigers 13-9 and sliced four points off the visitors’ lead, which stood at 25-18 at the half. 

Darby fought back, adding one point to their lead, 35-27 with one quarter to play. 

Plains cranked up the defensive pressure in the fourth quarter, clamping down on Heiland and company as they outscored Darby 14-5 in a frantic comeback rally that allowed the Trotters to eke out the one-point win as the final horn sounded. 

In the end, sophomore forward Katelyn Subatch was a key factor in fueling the comeback win with several key buckets down the stretch.  She finished the game with a team-best 14 points, while teammate Taryn Meredith added 11 points and topped the Trotters with 12 rebounds. 

Lawyer, who got in foul trouble in the first half, finished with nine points on the night. 

The victory boosted Plains to 6-2 on the year.  They are 2-0 in the Western 7B conference, good for first place as the teams near the midway point of the season. 

In the boys' game, which was also a relatively low-scoring, defense dominated game, Darby emerged from the first eight minutes of play clinging to a 6-4 lead as both teams had trouble scoring. 

The second quarter was also a defensive, cold-shooting event, with the Tigers outscoring Plains 10-6 on the way to a 16-10 halftime edge. 

Both teams got their offenses going in the third quarter, with the Tigers outpointing the home team 14-13 to add a single point to their lead, 30-23, heading into the final quarter. 

Plains outscored the Tigers 11-10 in the fourth quarter, but they could not erase Darby’s lead in what became a six-point Horsemen loss. 

Senior forward Zayden Allen led the Trotters in scoring with 11 points, while teammate Darren Standeford was limited to eight points on the evening. 

The loss dropped the Horsemen to 3-4 on the year, while Darby rose to 3-5 in the matchup between Western 7B and 6B teams. 

Next up for the Plains boys’ and girls' teams is a pair of conference games this Thursday (Jan 16) in Superior. They then travel the short distance up Highway 200 Saturday night for the first of their encounters this season with Sanders County rival Thompson Falls.