MURFREESBORO -- Friendship Christian’s Lady Commanders pulled away with a strong second half in Tuesday morning’s 51-30 victory over Portland in the opening round of the MidState Christmas Tournament at Middle Tennessee Christian School.

“After having been off for four day, I thought we played pretty well,” said FCS head coach Deanna Teeter as her team improved to 4-4 on the season.

The Lady Commanders led 25-19 at intermission, but out scored Portland 26-11 the rest of the way.

Andi Morrisett led Friendship with 18 points while Deja Jones dominated inside with a double-double, scoring 16 points and hauling in 13 rebounds. Mallory Johnson added seven points, Samantha Finley six and Christian Watkins four points for Friendship Christian.

The Lady Commanders are scheduled to play today (Wednesday) in the second round of the tournament at 4 p.m. against the winner of Tuesday’ Clinton - Donelson Christian Academy contest.

(boys) PJP II 45, Friendship 42
Friendship Christian’s boys were scheduled to play in an 11:30 a.m. loser’s bracket game today (Wednesday) against Coffee County.

The Commanders fell to 6-2 on the season following Tuesday night’s 45-42 loss to Pope John Paul II in the first round.

FCS took an early 13-7 lead and managed a 26-19 margin at intermission, only to see the Knight slowly get back into the game.

Mark Sandoval had 12 points to lead the Commanders while Dalton Patterson had nine.