Fort Dale won a one-sided first quarter to trounce the Morgan girls 69-22 in the Pepsi Classic at Morgan Academy on Friday.

“I challenged the girls to come out and play hard,” said Fort Dale coach William Johnson. “I was not expecting the game to go like that. We always look at Morgan-Fort Dale as Auburn-Alabama.”

The Senators ended the first quarter with a goose egg still showing on their side of the scoreboard and faced a 24-point deficit.

At the same time, the Eagles could not miss, largely due to the shooting of Lori Fail. She connected on two 3-pointers and finished the quarter with 12 points.

“They played a man-to-man defense on us, and we couldn’t get a shot to go,” said Morgan coach Robert Andress.

A Rachel Smith layup in the second quarter finally ended Morgan’s drought. A 6-0 run offered a glimmer of hope and closed the deficit to 30-8 as the Eagles’ shooting touch cooled. But Fort Dale didn’t slow down.

“They’re pretty good,” said Andress “We’re a mostly young team and have done well against our talent level. Hopefully, we’ll be improved later in the season.”

Fail led the Eagles with 19 points.

Whitney Norton led Morgan with six points.

The Eagles take on Lee-Scott for the tournament title at 12:30 p.m. today. The Senators take on Central Christian for third place at 10 a.m.