While O’Neal neutralized Grace Christian’s top scorer Anna Murr Tuesday in Sanford, holding her well below her season average of 32 points, Grace’s Brooke Strickland stepped up with a game-high 30 points to lead Grace Christian over the Lady Falcons 71-36.

“Our game plan all along was to hold Anna Murr in check with a girl on her at all times and to double her when she received the ball,” said Falcon coach Carl Bryan.

“(Grace Christian) Coach Murr does a wonderful job with his program and it is consistently one of the top programs in the state. While the score does not reflect how well our Lady Falcons did, we were able to establish a better game tempo in the second half and actually outscored them in the third period,” said Bryan. “We knew if we held Anna in check, they would be forced to use other players to beat us and Strickland really stepped up her game to build a first-quarter lead.”

Maggie Jackson led the Falcons with 13 points, while Katherine Wooddell and Cydney Baldwin both chipped in with six points each.

O’Neal, now 0-2 for the season, travels to Faith Christian to play Friday. The next home game for the Falcons is a rematch with Grace Christian next Monday.