Bryant continues Lady Cylcones’ woes
EDITOR’S NOTE: Because the look back at each day in Bryant athletic history has been so favorably received during the time when there was no sports during the COVID-19 shutdown, BryantDaily.com will continueposting past stories of Bryant athletics either posted on BryantDaily.com (from 2009 to the present) or published in the Bryant Times (from 1998 to 2008).
By Rob Patrick
Bryant Lady Hornets’ head coach Blake Condley and most of his team know exactly what Matt Kordsmeier and his Russellville Lady Cyclones are going through this season.
Because last year, it was them.
The Lady Hornets can also stand as proof of what a difference a year can make.
Last year, it was Bryant that went through the 7A-Central Conference without a win. This year, so far, the same plight has plagued Russellville and continued to do so as the Lady Hornets rolled to a 68-34 win at the Lady Cyclones’ expense.
That makes the 2008-09 Bryant Lady Hornets a dazzling 18-3 overall and 9-1 in the conference, bound for the State tournament and making a bid for a league championship. They’ll continue the latter quest on Friday, Feb. 13, at Conway.
Russellville drops to 4-17 and 0-9 going into Friday’s home game against Van Buren.[more]
As the old adage goes, the longer you let an underdog hang around, the tougher it is to get rid of them. On Tuesday, the Lady Hornets let the Lady Cyclones hang around for most of the first half. In fact, Russellville built an 11-7 lead early with Ashley Regeir scoring 6 of her team-high-matching 11 points during that stretch.
But the Lady Hornets responded with a 15-2 run to gain the upper hand then blew the game open with a 16-4 blitz in the second half. The final score was the largest margin as the Bryant reserves closed the game on a 10-0 run.
In fact, 11 of the 14 Lady Hornets contributed to the scoring, led by Alana Morris with 14, Hannah Goshien with 12 and Anna Simpson 10.
A driving layup by Morris started Bryant’s first surge late in the first quarter, cutting Russellville’s lead to 11-9. Moments later, Goshien drained a 3 and, off Taylor Hughes’ steal, Morris beat the buzzer ending the first half, giving Bryant a 14-11 edge.
Two free throws by Hughes and a patented drive to the hoop by Simpson extended the margin to 18-11.
Jaimie Long, who matched Regier’s team-high scoring total, interrupted with a basket but Simpson drilled a shot from the corner and Goshien hit a layup off a splendid dish from Haley Montgomery to make it 22-13.
The two teams traded hoops for a while and it was still a 9-point difference in the final minute of the half. But Simpson converted a pair of free throws with :47.3 showing then took advantage of a Lady Cyclones turnover with another dash to the rack to make it 34-21 at the break.
The lead was 40-25 midway through the third period when Kenzee Calley scored off an inbounds play under Bryant’s basket and sophomore Abbi Stearns drove to the hoop and converted a three-point play, giving the Lady Hornets their first 20-point lead, 45-25, with 2:31 left in the third quarter.
It was 50-28 at the end of the period after Goshien added a 3-pointer and another layup off a Montgomery dish.
It was 56-32 with less than five minutes to play when Condley began to work in his reserves. Lindsey Nelson popped a jumper from the corner and, later, sophomore point guard Taylor Neal added a free throw then an assist on a basket by Rachel Tucker that made it 63-34.
Nelson knocked down a 12-footer, Tucker hit a free throw and Shelby Harrison completed the scoring with a stickback in the final seconds.
LADY HORNETS 68, LADY CYCLONES 34
Score by quarter
Russellville 11 10 7 6 — 34
BRYANT 14 20 16 18 — 68
LADY CYCLONES (4-18, 0-9) 34
Player fg-fgm ft-ftm reb. fls. pts.
o-d-t
Hudson 1-3 0-3 0-1 1 4 2
Cooper 3-11 0-0 0-7 7 4 8
Pointer 0-0 0-0 1-2 3 3 0
Regier 4-5 3-6 1-5 6 1 11
Long 5-8 1-4 1-3 4 2 11
Brown 1-3 0-2 2-0 2 2 2
Prewett 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Peevy 0-1 0-0 0-1 1 0 0
Adkins 0-0 0-0 0-2 2 1 0
Team rebs. 0-2 2
Totals 14-33 4-15 5-23 28 18 34
LADY HORNETS (18-3, 9-1) 68
Player fg-fgm ft-ftm reb. fls. pts.
o-d-t
Hughes 2-6 2-4 0-1 1 0 7
Goshien 4-7 2-2 1-2 3 2 12
Calley 3-4 0-0 1-0 1 3 6
Simpson 4-10 2-4 0-4 4 0 10
Morris 6-10 1-3 2-1 3 3 14
Montgomery 1-3 2-2 0-2 2 4 4
Stearns 2-4 1-1 2-3 5 3 5
Johnson 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Parish 0-1 0-0 0-2 2 0 0
Nelson 2-3 0-0 0-0 0 1 4
Tucker 1-2 1-2 0-1 1 0 3
Neal 0-0 1-2 0-0 0 0 1
Hendricks 0-0 0-0 0-1 1 0 0
Harrison 1-1 0-0 1-1 2 0 2
Team rebs. 2-2 4
Totals 26-52 12-20 9-20 29 16 68
Three-point field goals: Russellville 2-10 (Cooper 2-6, Prewett 0-2, Hudson 0-1, Long 0-1), Bryant 4-16 (Goshien 2-4, Hughes 1-4, Morris 1-4, Simpson 0-2, Montgomery 0-1, Johnson 0-1). Turnovers: Russellville 26, Bryant 15. Technical fouls: Russellville coach Kordsmeier.
