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The second quarter has been a struggle for Jefferson County in recent games, and that continued on Monday night.

Taking on Dobyns-Bennett, Jeff County trailed by one after the first quarter. However, D-B rallied off the first 15 points of the second quarter to take control, going on for a 52-32 victory.

With the loss, Jeff County fell 9-8 overall and have now lost four games in-a-row.

“I did not feel like we played with any sort of effort, energy or enthusiasm from the tip to finish,” Jeff County Bo Lewis said. “We had no consistency tonight and are just struggling to shoot the ball. And we settled for bad shots tonight.”

Madi Hawk led the way for the Lady Patriots in the scoring column with 11 points while Brooke Satterfield added seven. Other scorers for Jeff County were Kamry Bolin with six, Ella Marie with four, Caroline Loveday with two and Adalyn Arnstrom with two.

Trying to find some energy from anywhere, Lewis rotated his bench into the game early and often. All 14 players dressed out for Jefferson County saw action on Monday evening.

“Ella Marie played a good game off the bench and played a nice JV game, scoring 19 points in that,” Lewis said. “I was just trying to go down the line to try and find some depth. Elissa Longmire is an energy giver. I knew she would go out there and attempt to play hard, and she did. Elissa, Ella (Marie) and Caroline (Loveday) I thought played hard and gave us some energy.”

D-B started strong with five straight points in the game, but a basket from Bolin and five straight from Satterfield gave the Lady Patriots a 7-5 advantage. Jeff County would lead one more time, 9-8 on a bucket by Arnstrom, but D-B scored late to take a 12-11 advantage after one.

The second quarter was where things turned as D-B rallied off the first 15 points to lead 27-11. Jeff County finally got on the board with a minute left in the half as Loveday scored. It was 27-13 at the break.

Down 14, the Lady Patriots came out and tried to cut into the lead. Hawk scored four quick points out of the half and then Bolin scored to make it 30-19. D-B answered with five straight, but Satterfield and Hawk scored for the Lady Patriots. Hawk scored three more before the end of the quarter and it was a 38-26 game heading to the fourth.

“I thought we came back out and forced a couple turnovers in our press and scored out of it,” Lewis said. “In the first half, we settled for perimeter shots and never really had the mentality of attacking the basket. That’s something we attempted to do in that third quarter.”

In the fourth, the Lady Patriots got the lead down to 10 early but D-B responded with six straight to put the game out of reach. The Lady Patriots managed just six points in the final eight minutes.

Jeff County will be back in action on Friday as they host Morristown West. Tip is set for 6 p.m.

For the Lady Patriots, Friday night is their last home district contest and a big chance to try and get them back in the district race.

“We’re in a scenario right now where we’re 0-3 in the district but in the East and Sevier County games, if we eliminate three to five turnovers it’s a different game,” Lewis said. “We just have to do a better job of getting in the flow of our offense. We have just been really stagnant.”