EMPORIA – Free State girls basketball suffered a lackluster offensive performance on the final day of the Glacier’s Edge Tournament, falling to Blue Valley 49-33 in the fifth-place game on Saturday at Emporia High School.

Free State head coach Summer Frantz said she was proud of her team nonetheless.

“I thought we matched their physicality and just played really hard,” she said.

The Firebirds finish the tournament 1-2 after winning their game on Friday, but the trip overall was a good bonding experience for the team, with a little more than a month remaining in the season.

“The last few days have been really big for our program,” Frantz said. “Off the court, they’ve gotten to spend a lot of time together. We were already a close group before this, but hopefully it’s made us closer (and) I do think we’ve shown girth on the court the last three days.”

Freshman Morgan McClorey led Free State in scoring with nine points, while freshman Quinlynn Vail added eight, senior Addie Fulscher chipped in six and junior Sarai Preston scored four points.

A pair of early 3-pointers by Fulscher and McClorey allowed Free State to take a 6-0 lead just over two minutes into the game.

The Tigers scored the next 12 points, with nine of those coming from sophomore Devyn Splittorff. Vail hit a 3-pointer to cut the deficit back to three before the Tigers responded with three of their own, including a field goal by Splittorff to make the score 15-9 after the first.

“We knew coming in that she was a really good player, but I did think that Morgan did a really good job on her,” Frantz said.

Splittorff finished the game with 17 points, while point guard Taylor Forgy led the Tigers in scoring with 20 points.

Fulscher began the second quarter the same way she started the first by hitting a 3-pointer before a 9-1 run by Blue Valley forced a Free State timeout, trailing by 11.

Out of the timeout, Vail added two points at the free-throw line, and McClorey scored a layup on consecutive possessions to cut the deficit to five. Each team scored two more points the rest of the quarter as Blue Valley led 26-21 at the break.

“That was a great way to end the first half,” Frantz said. “I thought halftime kind of slowed our momentum a little bit, but that was a huge way to end the half.”

It was a sluggish third quarter for the Firebirds, who scored just two points in the period on a layup by junior Aedri Grooms. The cold spell allowed the Tigers to extend their lead to 37-23 by the end of the quarter.

A big piece to Blue Valley’s success is 6-foot-1 freshman center Mackinley Cross. While Free State had success managing the post, it eventually became too much as the Tigers grabbed a plethora of offensive rebounds in the third quarter, keeping the Firebirds out of rhythm.

“I think the physicality and just fighting for our lives on every rebound just wore on us a little bit,” Frantz said.

Two points each from Vail, McClorey, Preston and freshman Taylor Hulcher helped cut the deficit to 11, but that was the closest Free State got the rest of the game as seven straight points by Blue Valley grew its lead as large as 18 before a layup by Preston with five seconds remaining was the final bucket of the game.

The Firebirds will return to Sunflower League play on Tuesday, visiting Olathe Northwest. That game will be a doubleheader, with the girls game beginning at 5:30 p.m. and the boys game at 7 p.m.