PEARCY — The Bryant Lady Hornets freshman team will play for the championship of the annual Kameron Hale Invitational Tournament at Lake Hamilton High School on Monday. They’ll be taking on the Central Arkansas Christian Junior Lady Mustangs at 5:30 p.m.
The Lady Hornets reached the final with a 32-28 win in overtime against the host team on Saturday.
After scoring just 2 points in the first half, Kendal Rogers finished with 16 points to lead Bryant to victory. Destiny Martin had 8, Sarah Kennedy 4, Kasey Ward 2 with Lania Ratliff and Macey Jaramillo getting 1 apiece.
“Kendal played very well on the offensive end,” said Lady Hornets coach Nathan Castaldi. “She scored all but 2 of our points in the second half and overtime. She really came up big for us.”
Rogers was named the Player of the Game.
Bryant held an 8-5 lead going into the second quarter but wound up trailing 18-16 at the half and 24-23 going into the fourth quarter.
“I think we were more consistent offensively in the first half,” Castaldi said, “but once again we had a poor defensive showing in the second quarter, which allowe Lake Hamilton to go into half with the lead.
“We played much better defensively in the second half but struggled to score,” he related. “Lake Hamilton went into a zone defense the second half, which frustrated us offensively. We seemed to rush some things instead of letting our offense work.
“That’s on me,” the coach stated. “We will continue to work on zone offense and try to get better. But the girls played tough defensively, which allowed us to remain in the game and we were able to pull out the win in the end.”
