Missed opportunities, particularly from the foul line, left Midway Middle’s girls empty-handed in their opening game against Sampson Middle, but the overtime game, coach Selena Joseph said was a good, hard-fought matchup between the two teams.

“I was very, very proud of my girls tonightt,” Joseph said. “We had some missed chances, both at the foul line and with their strongest player, Mikalya Boykin, but overall I thought we played great.”

Midway Middle took the early lead at 10-9 and, with Boykin in foul trouble early, added 5 more points in the second period while holding Sampson scoreless. At the intermission, Midway was ahead 15-9.

The Raider girls had chances to extend their lead from the charity stripe, but fell short, hitting only 25 percent of their shots or 6 of 24. “We can’t do that and get the wins,” Joseph stressed.”We’ve got to do better from the foul line.”

Midway also had its opportunities while Boykin, Sampson’s leading scorer, was benched with foul problems. “When Mikayla got in foul trouble, we didn’t capitalize like we should have with her out of the game. Then, when she came back, she was on fire, and added to Sampson’s points quickly,” Joseph said.

Boykin, who led all scorers with 33 points, got over 20 in the fourth period alone and helped set up the need for the overtime.

“Both teams played a great game,” Joseph said. “It was hard fought from beginning to end.”

Leading scorers for Midway were Leah Williams with 13 points; Alex Canady, 11; Haley West, 8; and Casey McLamb, 6. Maggie Williams had 11 rebounds and West pulled down 7; and Canady and Williams also had 5 assists each.

Midway returns to the court Thursday when they travel to Hobbton Middle for a 4 p.m. game.

Sampson’s scores were not called in Monday night.