Lady Hornets dismiss Lady Mavs behind Muse, Trotter
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 continueposting 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).
For more photos of this event by Rick Nation, go here; by Kevin Nagle, go here
McKenzie Muse had 17 points and 11 rebounds while Tierra Trotter scored 15 points and collected seven boards as the Bryant Lady Hornets improved to 3-1 in the 6A-Central Conference with a 71-27 win over the struggling Fort Smith Southside Lady Mavericks at Hornet Arena on Tuesday night.
Now 11-5 overall, the Lady Hornets square off with 15-2 Cabot on the road this Friday.
Southside, winless last season, remained winless this season as well.
“It was good,” said Lady Hornets coach Brad Matthews. “We got a lot of kids involved, go a lot of scoring. We played well early. We shot it well in the second quarter, which is good to see.”
Twelve players got in the game for Bryant, nine of them scored. Along with Muse and Trotter, Parris Atkins scored 10 points. Lexie Taylor and India Atkins added 7 each. Kaitlyn Weng hit a pair of 3’s in the fourth quarter to finish with 6.
Bryant scored the first 4 points of the game on layups off of steals by Parris Atkins and Trotter. But, with 2:51 left in the opening period, the Lady Hornets were clinging to a 6-4 edge.
“We missed a few free throws,” Matthews acknowledged. “We missed some open 3’s at the start, couldn’t get out in transition, sort of sputtered for the first two or three minutes.”
But a driving basket by Parris Atkins got the Lady Hornets revved up with what turned into a 14-3 run. Trotter hit the game’s first 3 to follow up Atkins’ bucket. Madi Scifres took a feed from Parris Atkins and knocked down another triple to make it 14-4.
Muse made a steal and scored to push the lead to 12 before Southside’s Lauren Redding hit a 3 to make it 16-7 going into the second quarter.
India Atkins made a steal and fed Muse for a basket. Moments later, India Atkins converted a pair of free throws as the lead ballooned to 13.
Southside’s Dylon McCord hit a 3 with 6:34 left to make it a 10-point difference but the Lady Hornets followed with another push, scoring the next 9 points. Trotter found McKeycia Baker for a basket inside. Muse canned a 3, Parris Atkins converted two free throws then Muse did the same to make it 31-12.
After Southside’s Ari Rice converted once at the free-throw line, Lexie Taylor and Shielo Laranjo traded 3’s. An old-fashioned three-point play off an offensive rebound by Parris Atkins with :17.4 left, made it 37-16 at the break.
“We got clicking, made some shots,” acknowledged Matthews. “When this group makes shots, everything turns up. The thing we need to work on is, when we don’t make shots, we’ve got to keep it turned up.
“For a lot of the game, I felt like we played well, competed hard and did what we needed to do,” he added. “We’ll go to work tomorrow to try to get ready for a very good Cabot team.”
To start the second half, Muse hit a jumper in the lane then Trotter drove for a layup. A three-point play off the offensive glass by Muse extended the lead to 28.
Aleigha Johnson scored inside for Southside’s first bucket of the second half but Muse drained a triple off a feed from India Atkins.
Laranjo and Essynce Norwood each hit a free throw before another run by Bryant put the game in mercy-rule territory. Trotter, off a dish from Parris Atkins, made a 3. India Atkins followed with a three-point play off a drive to rack. Another drive by India Atkins made it 55-20 then Scifres made a steal that led to a trip to the line for Trotter, who shot the lead to 37.
The Bryant lead was 61-24 going into the fourth quarter, which was accordingly played with a running clock.
Bryant out-rebounded the Lady Mavs 42-26 with half of those boards coming on the offensive end. They also forced 25 turnovers while committing just 10. As a result, the Lady Hornets attempted almost twice as many shots from the field as Southside, 61-32.
In the final stanza, Baker got a basket inside off a nice dish by Ivory Russ. Weng hit her two triples and, to cap the win, Lauryn Baker hit the offensive glass and scored.
LADY HORNETS 71, LADY MAVERICKS 27
Score by quarters
FS Southside 7 9 8 3 — 27
BRYANT 16 21 24 10 — 71
LADY MAVERICKS (0-16, 0-4) 27
Norwood 1-5 2-3 4, Laranjo 1-3 1-2 4, Redding 2-10 0-0 6, Grist 0-1 0-2 0, Rice 1-2 1-2 3, Phonkoumphon0-1 0-0 0, Roffine 1-5 1-2 3, McCord 1-3 0-0 3, Johnson 2-2 0-0 4, Clark 0-0 0-0 0, Ndungu 0-0 0-0 0, Neal 0-0 0-0 0, Branham 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 9-32 (28%) 5-11 (45%) 27.
LADY HORNETS (11-5, 3-1) 71
Trotter 5-8 3-4 15, Le.Taylor 2-9 1-2 7, P.Atkins 3-7 4-7 10, I.Atkins 2-9 3-3 7, Muse 6-16 3-3 17, Scifres 1-4 0-0 3, Russ 0-0 0-0 0, Baker 2-2 0-0 4, Kr.Weng 0-1 0-0 0, Ka.Weng 2-2 0-0 6, La.Taylor 1-2 0-0 2, Jordan 0-1 0-1 0, Hancock 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-61 (39%) 14-20 (70%) 71.
Three-point field goals: Bryant 9-28 (Le.Taylor 2-8, Muse 2-7, Trotter 2-4, Ka.Weng 2-2, Scifres 1-4, I.Atkins 0-3, P.Atkins 0-2), Fort Smith Southside 4-22 (Redding 2-9, Laranjo 1-3, McCord 1-3, Roffine 0-4, Norwood 0-3). Turnovers: Bryant 10, Fort Smith Southside 25. Rebounds: Bryant 21-21 42 (Muse 3-8 11, Trotter 5-2 7, P.Atkins 2-3 5, I.Atkins 1-3 4, Russ 2-2 4, Le.Taylor 2-1 3, Scifres 2-0 2, Jordan 1-1 2, La.Taylor 1-0 1, team 2-1 3), Fort Smith Southside 5-21 26 (Norwood 0-4 4, Grist 0-4 4, Rice 2-2 4, Redding 2-1 3, SPhonkoumphon 0-2 2, Ndungu 1-1 2, Laranjo 0-1 1, McCord 0-1 1, team 0-5 5). Team fouls: Bryant 10, Fort Smith Southside 16. Fouled out: Fort Smith Southside, Rice.
