BEEBE — The Batesville Southside Lady Southerners piled up a 22-point third quarter to turn a 10-point lead into 24-point advantage in a 70-40 victory over the Bryant Lady Hornets on Thursday to open the Beebe Holiday Tournament.
The Lady Hornets were set to play again today at 10 a.m., against the Searcy Lady Lions in the consolation round as Southside advanced to the winners bracket against Little Rock Christian.
Playing for the first time since Dec. 12, the Lady Hornets stayed with Southside in the first quarter, trailing just 14-10. The Lady Southerners pushed to a 29-19 advantage by halftime but the big third quarter made it 41-27.
“Batesville Southside is a really talented team,” said Lady Hornets coach Brad Matthews. “Late in the third quarter, early fourth quarter, we had some defensive breakdowns and they made us pay as good teams will do.
“We had some portions of the game where we played well,” he asserted. “We are young and we need to be locked in both physically as well as mentally to each possession. We need to put together longer spans of use playing well as we try to reduce the amoung of breakdowns we are having.”
Ivory Russ led the Lady Hornets with 11 points. Tierra Trotter had 10, Celena Martin 7 and Lexie Taylor 6.
2017 BEEBE HOLIDAY TOURNAMENT
At Beebe High School
Thursday, Dec. 28
Game 1 — Harding Academy 39, El Dorado 36
Game 2 — Batesville Southside 70, Bryant 40
Game 3 — Little Rock Christian 59, Searcy 35
Game 4 — Beebe 69, Blytheville 37
Friday, Dec. 29
Game 5 — Bryant vs. Searcy
Game 6 — El Dorado vs. Blytheville, 1 p.m.
Game 7 — Batesville Southside vs. Little Rock Christian, 4 p.m.
Game 8 — Harding Academy vs. Beebe, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 30
Game 9 — Searcy vs. game 6 loser, 10 a.m.
Game 10 — Bryant vs. game 6 winner, 1 p.m.
Game 11 — Game 7 loser vs. game 8 loser, 4 p.m.
Game 12 — Game 7 winner vs. game 8 winner, 7 p.m.
