Lady Hornets improve to 10-0 with opening win at Spa City Shootout
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).
By Rob Patrick
HOT SPRINGS — Taking the first step in what they hope will be their third of four tournament championships (the last one being the most important come the end of April), the Bryant Lady Hornets surged to a 70-49 win over the Lake Hamilton Lady Wolves on Monday in the first round of the Summit Bank Spa City Shootout.
The win improved the Lady Hornets to 10-0 this season going into a semifinal game against Hot Springs Lakeside tonight at 7.
Bryant has already captured the championship of the Crabtree Invitational Tournament in Bentonville and the venerable old Joe T. Robinson Invitational at Pulaski Robinson High.
Balanced scoring continued to be a hallmark of the team with four players reaching double figures, another getting 9 and another 8. Alana Morris led the way with 11 points, 13 rebounds and six assists. Kenzee Calley matched the 11 points while Hannah Goshien and Shanika Johnson each hit for 10. Haley Montgomery finished with 9 and Brooke Parish 8.[more]
Bryant out-rebounded Lake Hamilton 44-28 with 20 of those boards coming on the offensive end.
The Lady Hornets never trailed on the way to their second win this season over the Lady Wolves. (They won at Lake Hamilton on Dec. 8, 60-45.) The game was tied at 2 then Montgomery drilled a 3 to put her team ahead to stay.
Lake Hamilton, behind a 22-point effort by Ashleigh Brown, stuck around.
“We talked about wanting to guard (Brown),” noted Lady Hornets coach Blake Condley. “We gave up 27 to her last time and we gave up 22 to her this time. Some of that came in some of our different match-ups, when we’d switch off and do something different. We’d lose her and she’d get an open shot.
“We’ve got to do a better job of finding the other team’s scorers,” he asserted. “When they have a scorer that can really put the ball in the hole, it’s not just one girl’s responsibility to guard her. It’s team defense. Everybody’s got to know where she is and what we’ve got to do to stop her. We’ve got to learn from it. Hopefully, we learn and get better from each game and we do a better job next time.”
It was 12-8 late in the opening quarter when Parish hit two free throws and, after a turnover, took an eye-popping feed from Morris for a layup to make it 16-8. Parish had 6 of her points in the opening period.
And the Lady Hornets got a bonus at the buzzer when Abbi Stearns tossed in a shot from midcourt that appeared to surprise her as much as anybody. The 3-pointer had Bryant up by 11.
And when Johnson hit a 3 to start the second quarter, Bryant was up 22-8.
The Lady Wolves began to whittle on that margin and when Brown scored 8 points of a 10-0 run, they were within 24-22.
A three-point play by Goshien get Bryant back in the groove. Crystal Shaffer (12 points) hit a 12-footer that had the Lady Wolves within 3 with 2:10 left in the half but, again, the Lady Hornets closed the quarter with a run. Morris fed Goshien for a short jumper and, after a steal by Montgomery, Parish grabbed an offensive rebound and scored. She then made a steal and Montgomery cashed in with a 3 that had Bryant back ahead by 10.
After a timeout with :45 left, the Lady Wolves trimmed the margin by 3 on a long jumper by Malory Maranda, making it 34-27 at the half.
With 5:30 left in the third quarter, Lake Hamilton was still within 41-34. Calley hit a free throw at the 5:25 mark then the Lady Hornets forced a 10-second violation as the Lady Wolves were unable to cross the timeline against the press. Johnson cashed in with a 3 and the lead was up to double figures again, 45-34.
Maranda hit a hook shot at the other end but Morris got loose inside for a bucket. After the Lady Wolves missed a pair of chances to cut back into the margin, including at the free-throw line, Johnson hit from the corner to make it a 13-point bulge.
Shaffer answered inside but Morris collected an offensive-rebound and scored in response. After a pair of misses by Brown, Montgomery rushed up the floor for a layup and a 53-38 lead that moved Lake Hamilton coach Brandi Higganbotham to call time out.
Brown hit two free throws after she was fouled once the teams returned but Johnson drained another baseline jumper and Morris made a steal and layup that had the Lady Hornets up 57-40 going into the final period.
Morris fed Calley for a hoop to start the fourth quarter. The 19-point advantage was the largest to that point for Bryant. It was 62-45 after a basket by Morris with 3:17 to go and both coaches unleashed their benches. Bryant’s largest lead came with :50 left. Taylor Neal had converted a pair of free throws then Callie Hogancamp flushed a trey to make it 69-47.
LADY HORNETS 70, LADY WOLVES 49
Score by quarters
BRYANT 19 15 23 13 — 70
Lake Hamilton 8 19 13 9 — 49
BRYANT 70
Player fg-fga ft-fta reb fls pts
o-d-t
Montgomery3-7 1-2 2-2 4 1 9
Goshien 4-10 1-1 0-4 4 0 10
Stearns 2-5 0-0 2-3 5 3 5
Calley 5-8 1-2 2-0 2 0 11
Morris 4-7 3-5 6-7 13 3 11
Johnson 4-13 0-0 1-0 1 2 10
Parish 3-6 2-2 2-2 4 0 8
Neal 0-3 2-2 0-1 1 0 2
Ball 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Lee 0-0 0-0 0-1 1 1 0
Abernathy 0-2 0-0 1-0 1 0 0
Barker 0-1 0-0 0-1 1 0 0
Hogancamp 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 3
Sory 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Blundell 0-0 1-2 1-1 2 0 1
Team 3-2 5
Totals 26-63 11-16 20-24 44 11 70
LAKE HAMILTON 49
Player fg-fga ft-fta reb fls pts
o-d-t
Collier 1-6 0-0 0-2 2 3 2
Brown 6-12 7-7 3-3 6 2 22
Shaffer 6-13 0-0 1-2 3 0 12
Mata 1-2 0-0 0-2 2 4 2
Chunn 0-5 0-0 2-2 4 1 0
Maranda 3-5 0-0 1-1 2 0 7
Tucker 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Summit 0-1 2-4 1-1 2 0 2
Martin 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 2
Stevens 0-1 0-3 0-1 1 1 0
Frazier 0-2 0-0 0-1 1 1 0
Team 2-3 5
Totals 18-49 9-14 10-18 28 13 49
Three-point field goals: Bryant 7-22 (Johnson 2-7, Montgomery 2-3, Goshien 1-5, Stearns 1-1, Hogancamp 1-1, Neal 0-3, Morris 0-1, Abernathy 0-1), Lake Hamilton 4-10 (Brown 3-4, Maranda 1-1, Shaffer 0-2, Collier 0-1, Summit 0-1, Frazier 0-1). Turnovers: Bryant 10, Lake Hamilton 11.
