Lady Hornets swamp Fairview
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 continue posting 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 TIMES
Any suspicions that the Camden Fairview Lady Cardinals might actually give the Bryant Lady Hornets some competition Friday night last less than two minutes into the game.
That’s when Bryant’s Heather Atkins grabbed an offensive rebound and scored to snap a 2-2 tie. It also started a 20-2 blitz that ripped the game open.
In their final home game of the season, the Lady Hornets breezed to a 62-29 win to improve to 17-10 overall and 8-5 in the AAAAA-South Conference.
The Lady Hornets were set to finish the regular season at Benton on Tuesday then begin preparations for their State Tournament debut on Tuesday, Feb. 29, at 1 p.m. in the Pine Bluff Convention Center.
The Bryant seniors, Atkins, Shannon Amos, Tiffany and Stephanie Kennedy, Bekka Middleton and the injured Ashley Wallis, were honored after they had played for the final time in the Bryant gym.
Eight different Lady Hornets players contributed to the 20-2 run. After Atkins’ basket, Joanie Robideaux and Candice Croy combined on a steal that led to a trip to the free-throw line for Robideaux. She converted once. Tiffany Kennedy followed up with a steal and she too was fouled on her drive to the basket. Her subsequent free throw made it 6-2.
Moments later, another theft by Kennedy resulted in the first of three 3-point hoops by Croy.
Middleton added a layup, Robideaux popped a jumper from 15 feet and Croy made a steal and layup to make it 15-2.
Fairview’s Kor’Tina Satterwhite interrupted the run with a basket inside with :20 left in the first period, but Bree Mann, in off the bench for Bryant, scored at the buzzer to put the Lady Hornets up by 13 at the first break.
Stephanie Kennedy scored the first basket of the second quarter off a feed from her twin sister Tiffany then Shannon Amos made a steal that led to a 3-pointer by Meagan Clancy that completed the blitz.
Andrea Gill hit the offensive glass to get another hoop for Fairview but then so did Atkins. Another Fairview turnover followed and Robideaux drilled a jumper from the wing and, moments later, Middleton scored inside to make it 28-6.
Later in the quarter, with Bryant leading 30-8, Tiffany Kennedy buried a 3 and Mann converted a pair of free throws to make it 35-8. Fairview’s Monica Williams missed the front end of a one-and-one and the Lady Cardinals tracked down the rebound only to have Mann swipe a pass and drive for a layup that extended the margin to 29.
Free throws by Williams and a basket by Bryant’s Kim Jacuzzi left it 39-10 at the half.
The lead was never less than 28 in the second half and, in the fourth quarter, after Croy hit a pair of 3’s, Robideaux drove for a layup and the bench had been cleared, the Lady Hornets’ expanded the lead to as much as 37, a run that capped by a free throw by sophomore Stacy Hunt with 2:22 left to play.
