An old bugaboo reared up to bite the Bryant Lady Hornets freshman team on Thursday night:
Poor free-throw shooting.
The Lady Hornets were 5 of 16 from the stripe in a 31-28 loss to the North Little Rock Lady Charging Wildcats in a battle for second place in the Central Arkansas Junior High Conference.
The game was played at Bryant Middle School gym instead of Bryant Junior High. It was the first time all season the freshman teams have played at BMS.
Back on Dec. 5, 2019, the Lady Hornets had gone to North Little Rock and rolled to a 38-22 win. But that was a non-conference game. It was part of Bryant’s 15-2 start to the season. The Lady Cats turned the tables on the Lady Hornets on Thursday.
“They’re young so the second time through they’re playing a little bit better,” acknowledged Lady Hornets coach Nathan Castaldi.
A big part of that improvement is eighth-grade guard Jocelyn Tate who scored 9 points and helped her team overcome Bryant’s defense by penetrating into the lane.
“She has a lot of confidence,” Castaldi said. “She is really a difference maker. She got it in the paint whenever she wanted to, gave us lots of problems.
“Defensively, especially, it’s hard to really get up and guard them,” he added. “Tate kind of did what she wanted to offensively.”
Eight-graders are allowed to play up on the freshman teams of all of the Central Arkansas Junior High Conference teams except Bryant by school administrative policy.
Ce’riah Evans added 13 points for the Lady Cats to go with eight rebounds.
Bryant was paced by Emileigh Muse with 10. Natalie Edmonson had 6 and Haya Winfield 5.
Bryant opened the game with a 10-3 surge that included 3’s by Muse and Edmonson and a jumper in the lane for Winfield.
Zanyanna Cooper accounted for North Little Rock’s 3, the only one the Lady Cats hit all night.
The Lady Hornets maintained a slight lead the entire first half.
After a North Little Rock timeout, Tate hit a running jumper and, moments late, Evans, the Lady Cats’ post player, turned in a three-point play off the offensive boards.
Winfield hit the offensive glass to counter for Bryant. Evans hit a layup up Muse added a pull-up jumper off a drive into the paint, making it 14-10 at the end of the first quarter.
The Lady Hornets scored just 4 points in the second period. They were 1 of 6 from the field and 1 of 6 from the free-throw line.
With their defense engaged, however, the Lady Hornets were able to maintain a lead.
It was 14-13 before Muse bombed in a triple.
Still, at the intermission, the Lady Hornets led just 18-16.
The third quarter went back and forth. The game was tied at 18, 20 and 22, the latter score was on the board going into the fourth.
Bryant had three chances to snap the tie but turned it over once then Jayla Knight made a steal for the Lady Hornets. Her shot, however, was blocked by Tate. At the 5:23 mark, Knight had a chance to gain the lead with a pair of free throws but came up empty.
At the other end, Jamila Moore started a 7-0 run for the Lady Cats that had them ahead 29-22.
Jaylyn Allen banked in a pair of free throws for Bryant then Muse made a steal and made it to the line only to miss the front end of the one-and-one.
But Knight followed up with a steal and a layup, trimming the margin to 3 with 2:10 left.
Furious defense at the end allowed the Lady Hornets a chance to rally. But missed shots, turnovers and missed turnovers were the result until Muse scored with :32 left to make it 31-28.
Bryant forced the last of North Little Rock’s 21 turnovers and Castaldi called a timeout with :15.2 to go to set up a play to get a 3 to tie. But the Lady Hornets were unable or unwilling to get a shot away before turning the ball over with :01.9 showing.
“I thought we had a little energy there at the end, caused some turnovers,” the Lady Hornets’ coach said. “But we never could seem to capitalize. They’d get back and knock it back out of bounds or something like that.”
The Lady Hornets will be off Monday as the rest of the league plays. They’ll regroup and get back to conference play next Thursday against Conway White, back at the junior high gym.
LADY CHARGING WILDCATS 31, LADY HORNETS 28
Freshman
Score by quarters
No. Little Rock 10 6 6 9 — 31
BRYANT 14 4 4 6 — 28
LADY CHARGING WILDCATS 31
Cooper 1-5 0-0 3, Tate 4-9 1-2 9, Wilson 0-5 0-0 0, Moore 2-2 1-1 5, Evans 6-10 1-1 13, Kimble 0-4 1-2 1, Hatley 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-36 (36%) 4-6 (67%) 31.
LADY HORNETS 28
Lain 1-3 0-2 2, Edmonson 2-7 1-2 6, Muse 4-10 0-1 10, Winfield 2-3 1-2 5, Allen 0-4 2-3 2, Knight 1-3 0-2 2, Johnson 0-0 1-2 1, Gentry 0-1 0-0 0, Winston 0-0 0-2 0. Totals 10-31 (32%) 5-16 (31%) 28.
Three-point field goals: Bryant 3-10 (Muse 2-6, Edmonson 1-3, Gentry 0-1), North Little Rock 1-10 (Cooper 1-5, Wilson 0-4, Tate 0-1). Turnovers: Bryant 19, North Little Rock Blue 21. Rebounds: Bryant 9-15 24 (Winfield 2-3 5, Lain 2-2 4, Muse 0-3 3, Allen 0-2 2, Knight 1-1 2, Johnson 0-2 2, Edmonson 0-1 1, Gentry 0-1 1, Winston 1-0 1, team 3-0 3), North Little Rock 9-18 27 (Evans 3-5 8, Tate 0-5 5, Moore 2-3 5, Kimble 1-2 3, Cooper 1-1 2, Hatley 1-1 2, Wilson 0-1 1, team 1-0 1). Team fouls: Bryant 10, North Little Rock 15.
