Bryant girls outgun Maumelle, 86-64
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).
MAUMELLE — The Bryant Lady Hornets found an opponent that didn’t mind running with them on Tuesday night. But the Maumelle Lady Hornets couldn’t keep up, especially when Bryant started pumping in 3-pointers.
Bryant hit 10 of them and took advantage of 27 turnovers plus a plus-14 rebound advantage to swamp Maumelle 86-64. McKenzie Muse drained 5 of 6 from 3-point range and led the Lady Hornets of Bryant with 23 points and eight rebounds. Parris Atkins hit a 3 and scored 21 points. Tierra Trotter and Celena Martin had 11 points each while Lexie Taylor came off the bench to drain 3 of 4 from distance for 9 points. India Atkins led all rebounders with 11 to go with seven assists.
Bryant amassed more than 15 assists in the game and 20 steals, led by Martin with seven and Parris Atkins with five.
“I thought our effort was good,” said Bryant head coach Brad Matthews.
And it was a separator. Bryant’s effort never waned, which could not be said for Maumelle, which got frustrated and didn’t maintain their effort throughout.
“We got off to a really hot start, forced some turnovers, got out in transition,” Matthews noted, referencing his team’s 23-point first quarter.
“You’ve got to give Maumelle credit,” he continued. “I thought they played really well in the first half, shot it really well. They’ve got three really good guards. They executed really well.
“We’d get ahead 10 of 12 then they’d make a run back,” the coach acknowledged. “They’re a good team. Obviously, there were some breakdowns on our part. When you have breakdowns, the other team’s going to take advantage and give Maumelle credit. They did.”
Bryant’s lead was 23-17 at the first break then 43-38 at the half. A bit of foul trouble forced Matthews to back his team out of the press and into the half-court match-up zone.
“Second half, we got back to kind of forcing tempo, getting out in transition and built that lead up to 25, 28,” the coach noted. “We had a good offensive night. We’re going to enjoy the win then go back to practice tomorrow to try improve.”
The press certainly helped Bryant in the second half, but better half-court defense led to Maumelle struggles. The home team hit just 2 of 11 shots from the field in the third quarter.
“We’ve got to do two things,” Matthews related. “Pressure and not foul, and pressure and not give up easy layups. That’s going to be a continual work in progress. We do it in spurts but then we also have spurts where we foul some and we have spurts where we give up some easy baskets.
“And that’s a credit to the other team too,” he added. “I mean, they practice too and they’re well coached.
“In the second half, we held them down so, yes, we played better in the half-court,” the coach said. “And I thought we did a much better job rebounding. That’s going to be a work in progress all year with this group as well.
“It was a good win,” he concluded.
A three-point play to start the game by Maumelle’s Kennedi Borkins produced her team’s only lead of the game. A layup against the Maumelle press by Parris Atkins was followed by a steal from Tierra Trotter that she cashed in for a layup and a 4-3 lead.
India Atkins’s steal led to a layup for her sister and a 6-3 advantage that forced Maumelle coach Bobby Lewallen to call timeout.
But that didn’t slow down the Bryant onslaught. Off another theft by India Atkins, Parris Atkins scored. Two free throws by Muse after grabbing an offensive rebound kept the run going. Martin’s steal and layup made it 12-3 then Parris Atkins swiped the ball in the press and drove the other way for a layup, forcing another Maumelle timeout.
This time, Maumelle responded, ending Bryant’s 14-0 run with a layup from London Robinson. Though Trotter fed Martin for a basket in response, Maumelle started to whittle on the margin. Jumpers by Brekayla Davis and Borkins cut it to 16-9 before Muse took a kickout from Parris Atkins and hit her first triple.
Bryant pushed the margin back out to 10 with the help of Taylor’s first trey. In the last 20 seconds of the half, however, Borkins converted two free throws then Gena Hayes hit a layup to beat the buzzer.
And that was just the first quarter.
Taylor opened the second quarter with another bomb, but Maumelle cut the lead to 5 and had a chance to get closer only to have Martin make a steal and layup.
Still, Maumelle was within 5 going into the last three minutes of the half. Muse’s third triple was followed by a driving jumper from Borkins. Muse scored off the offensive glass but Borkins canned a 3.
Muse, in a stretch in which she scored 11 consecutive points for Bryant hit again and it was 41-32.
Late 3’s by Maumelle’s Ronniah Akins and Lydia Holloway in the final minute allowed Maumelle to stay relatively close 43-38 at the half.
Bryant blew the game up to start the third quarter, going on a 20-2 blitz. Trotter drove for a basket then Martin buried a 3 off a kick-out from India Atkins. Parris Atkins scored on a driving layup then she and India worked a two-on-one break that led to a three-point play opportunity for Parris.
Trailing 52-38, Maumelle finally broke the ice on its second half when Jordan Cribbs-Polk hit a jump hook. And a chance presented itself to get another bucket. But Parris Atkins made a steal that led to a trip to the line. Though she missed both shots — the Lady Hornets were just 6 of 14 from the charity stripe in the game — her sister rebounded and got it back outside to her for a 3.
A steal and layup by Muse and a steal and layup by Parris Atkins increased the margin to 59-40 and forced the second Maumelle timeout of the third quarter.
Before Maumelle could score again, Parris Atkins fed Trotter for a layup then India Atkins put together a splendid drive, working off a spin move for a layup that made it a 23-point lead.
Taylor’s third 3 made it 66-43 before Maumelle made a brief surge to end the third quarter down 18.
Trotter fed Muse for a 3 to start the fourth quarter. Trotter’s steal and layup was followed by a steal and basket by Ivory Muse. After a free throw by Davis for Maumelle, Taylor fed Muse for a baseline jay and, one more time, Parris Atkins made a steal and layup to push the margin to 77-49.
The lead was never less than 20 after that. Matthews began working in reserves in the final four minutes or so.
The win evened Bryant’s record to 3-2 going into a game at home on Tuesday, Dec. 10, against Little Rock Hall, coached by former Lady Hornet star Celita Farr, in what should be the final varsity contest at the old Hornets’ Nest.
BRYANT LADY HORNETS 86, MAUMELLE LADY HORNETS 64
Score by quarters
BRYANT 23 20 23 20 — 86
Maumelle 17 21 10 16 — 64
BRYANT (2-2) 86
Trotter 4-16 3-4 11, P.Atkins 10-15 0-3 21, I.Atkins 3-9 0-0 6, Martin 5-10 0-1 11, Muse 8-9 2-2 23, Taylor 3-6 0-0 9, Russ 1-1 0-2 2, Scifres 1-3 1-2 3, Baker 0-0 0-0 0, Kr.Weng 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 35-70 6-14 86.
MAUMELLE (2-4) 64
Hayes 3-4 0-0 6, Akins 2-3 1-3 6, Holloway 2-5 0-0 6, Borkins 5-12 7-7 19, Cribbs-Polk 1-1 4-4 6, Davis 2-6 2-7 6, Nelson 0-5 3-3 3, Robinson 3-8 0-1 6, Thompson 0-0 0-0 0, Wilson 0-0 0-0 0, Henderson 2-3 2-2 6, Rhodes 0-0 0-0 0, Bishop 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-47 19-27 64.
Three-point field goals: Bryant 10-22 (Muse 5-6, Taylor 3-5, P.Atkins 1-4, Martin 1-1, Trotter 0-3, Scifres 0-2, I.Atkins 0-1), Maumelle 5-14 (Holloway 2-4, Borkins 2-4, Akins 1-1, Nelson 0-5). Turnovers: Bryant 20, Maumelle 27. Rebounds: Bryant 17-26 43 (I.Atkins 6-5 11, Muse 3-5 8, Trotters 3-4 7, Martin 1-4 5, Russ 3-2 5, P.Atkins 0-2 2, Taylor 1-1 2, Scifres 0-1 1, Baker 0-1 1, team 0-1 1), Maumelle 7-22 29 (Davis 2-8 10, Nelson 0-4 4, Akins 2-1 3, Holloway 0-2 2, Robinson 1-1 2, Hayes 0-1 1, Cribbs-Polk 0-1 1, Rhodes 0-1 1, team 2-3 5). Team fouls: Bryant 20, Maumelle 14. Fouled out: Bryant, Russ.
