PEARCY — Early in their game with the Lake Hamilton Lady Wolves in the finals of the first Kameron Hale Memorial Tournament on Saturday, the undefeated Bryant Lady Hornets freshman team found themselves trailing 6-2. Head coach Eric Andrews called a timeout and, when play resumed, the Lady Hornets finished out the first half with a 26-4 blitz on their way to capturing the tourney championship with a 53-21 win.
“We might have played as good as we have all year,” Andrews stated afterwards. “We played really well. I was real proud of them.”[more]
The Lady Hornets had advanced to the finals by dismissing Malvern 40-23 on Wednesday, Dec. 16, then Benton, 31-17, on Thursday.
“The first two games we got a couple of wins but I didn’t think that we looked as sharp as we had (before Christmas break),” Andrews said. “But we really came out and kind of clicked (Saturday) and looked real good. I hope it carries right on over.”
The Lady Hornets, now 14-0, host North Little Rock in a crucial game in the South Division of the Central Arkansas Junior High Conference on Monday, Jan. 4.
Said Andrews of the early timeout, “I kind of reminded the girls about what we’d talked about before the game, how we wanted to start the game. The next time I looked at the scoreboard, it was 20-6. We went on a pretty big run after that timeout. We got them pretty rattled there. Our press was working really well.”
Bryant’s lead after a quarter was 15-6. It was 28-10 at the half, 44-20 by the end of the third quarter.
“Logan Davis hit a couple of perimeter shots,” Andrews continued regarding the early run. “They were trying to play us man-to-man and sagging a couple of people in the lane. That left a couple of people open. Lauren Buck hit some open shots when they didn’t come out and guard her and that really helped us out. They were trying to shade on McKenzie (Adams) and Kiara (Moore) and Logan, trying to take them out of the game but we had people step up and make open shots all night.
“When that started happening, they started spreading out on defense and it started to open up penetration and we were able to get to the basket,” he explained. “Then, after made baskets, we were able to get into our press and it was very effective.”
Adams led the scoring with 17 points. Moore added 15, Buck 8, Davis 7, McKenzie Rice 4 with Courtney Davidson and Hayley Murphy contributing a free throw each.
“Kiara had a big game,” Andrews noted. “She had a bunch of steals and got them to turn the ball over quite a bit and converted on the other end.
“Courtney, I had her guarding (Corey) Bullard because we knew we had to stop her,” the coach said. “As she goes, they go. Courtney did a great job on her and held her to only 2 points in the first half and only 6 overall.”
