By Rob Patrick
When the Lake Hamilton Lady Wolves freshman basketball team came out for warm-ups at the Bryant Middle School gym on Monday night, coach Eric Andrews observed, “Gosh, they’re big.”
Indeed, the Lady Wolves had a size advantage over Andrews’ Lady Hornets and it was no surprise that they out-rebounded the host team, 36-20.
And yet, the Lady Hornets eased to a 50-20 victory in the first round game at the annual Bryant Invitational.
How?[more]
Well, as much as the advantage was on the boards — 16 more for Lake Hamilton — it dwindled in comparison to Bryant’s advantage. The Lady Hornets forced a whopping 33 turnovers while committing just eight themselves.
The big girls can’t score if you can’t get the ball up the floor.
In fact, the Lady Wolves didn’t score the entire first quarter and almost two minutes into the second as the Lady Hornets piled up a 15-0 lead, forcing 11 turnovers in the opening quarter.
McKenzie Adams finished with a game-high 18 points to go with 10 steals and four rebounds to lead the Bryant charge. Kiara Harris, Courtney Davidson and Logan Davis each added 8 points. Harris made five thefts.
Bryant advances to play Texarkana tonight in the second round of the tournament. Lake Hamilton plays in the fifth-place game today at 4 against Conway White.
Davis got the Lady Hornets on the board first and Adams made a steal and a free throw to make it 3-0 but it stayed that way for a while before the Lady Hornets got their pressure defense revved up. Adams hit another free throw with 1:11 left in the first quarter then made a steal and another free throw. Another quick theft led to a layup and a 7-0 lead that forced a Lake Hamilton timeout.
When play resumed Harris swiped the ball and fed Adams for another lay-in. Davidson got into the act with a steal and a layup before the end of the period to make it 11-0. Lake Hamilton had a chance to score after that only to have Bryant’s Hayley Murphy come up with a steal to frustrate the Lady Wolves further.
When the second quarter began, Harris fed Davidson for a layup and, moments later, drove the lane for short jumper to complete the 15-0 run.
Lake Hamilton finally broke the ice with a basket at the 4:19 mark of the second quarter.
And the Lady Wolves trimmed the lead to 15-6 behind a pair of buckets by post player Corey Bullard, who would wind up with 14 of her team’s points. A Bryant turnover had them in position to get closer only to have Adams make a steal that led to a three-point play to thwart the momentum.
A jumper in the lane by McKenzie Rice made it 20-6.
It was 24-11 at the half.
The Lady Hornets started the second half like they had the first. This time the run was 16-3. Harris got the first bucket of the half with a jumper from the wing. Adams’ theft produced a layup and, after another Lake Hamilton turnover, Adams fed Davis for a layup, made another steal and fed Harris for an easy 2 and it was 32-11.
After a Lake Hamilton timeout, the Kylie Frazier interrupted the Bryant run but Harris answered with a basket, a steal and a feed to Davis, making it 36-13.
Bullard hit a free throw and the Lady Wolves had a chance to get back-tor-back points. Again, however, Adams made two quick steals and layups to run the lead to 40-14.
It was 40-19 going into the fourth quarter, after one more mini-blitz, the starters were all out for Bryant. Lauren Buck’s basket opened the period. Harris made a steal that led to another Davis basket then Davis swiped a pass and fed Davidson for a layup to make it 46-19.
After Bullard scored the only point of the period for Lake Hamilton, Davidson and Sarah McPherson capped off the victory.
No one scored over the final four minutes of the game as everyone got into the game for both teams.
LADY HORNETS 50, LADY WOLVES 20
Score by quarters
Lake Hamilton 0 11 8 1 — 20
BRYANT 11 13 16 10 — 50
LADY WOLVES (20)
Frazier 1-3 0-0 2, Thompson 0-1 0-0 0, K.Bullard 0-2 0-0 0, Norris 0-2 0-0 0, C.Bullard 5-11 4-7 14, Simms 0-1 0-0 0, Bland 0-0 0-0 0, Brown 2-4 0-0 4, Anderson 0-3 0-0 0, Bradshaw 0-2 0-0 0, Utley 0-1 0-0 0, Erwin 0-0 0-0 0, Gullett 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 8-30 4-7 20.
LADY HORNETS (50)
Moore 4-8 0-0 8, Davis 4-8 0-1 8, Adams 6-15 6-10 18, Davidson 4-4 0-0 8, Buck 1-3 0-0 2, Rice 1-3 0-0 2, Murphy 1-1 0-0 2, Scarlett 0-1 0-0 0, Yazza 0-3 0-0 0, McPherson 1-2 0-0 2, Henderson 0-0 0-0 0, Combs 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 22-48 6-11 50.
Three-point field goals: Bryant 0-5 (Adams 0-3, Moore 0-1, Davis 0-1), Lake Hamilton 0-1 (K.Bullard 0-1). Rebounds: Bryant 20 (Adams 4, Davidson 3), Lake Hamilton 36 (C.Bullard 9). Turnovers: Bryant 8, Lake Hamilton 33. Team fouls: Bryant 8, Lake Hamilton 9.
