By Rob Patrick
CONWAY — The Bryant Lady Hornets kind of got mixed[more] messages early in their 7A/6A-Central Conference battle with the Conway Wampus Cats Tuesday night at Buzz Bolding Arena.
While Conway’s inside duo of Quay Allen-Smith and Bre Hobbs were allowed to bull their way around, Bryant’s senior forward Abbi Stearns — the team leader in blocks and rebounds — was picking up two quick fouls trying to defend them.They were “letting them play” as they say, except, it seemed, Stearns who picked up her third foul midway through the second quarter and had to come out a second time.Conway was thus rewarded for being bigger and stronger and more aggressive.
Allen-Smith went on to score 17 points and collect 18 rebounds to lead the Lady Cats to a 54-42 win that improved their record to 18-5 overall and 6-5 in conference play. Bryant fell to 16-6 and 3-6 going into Friday’s home game against Cabot.
The Lady Hornets had an uphill climb after Conway built a 14-5 lead in the first quarter without star forward Taylor Gault sitting out for one reason or another until the second quarter. Gault had scored 31 on the Lady Hornets at Bryant. She finished with a game-high 21 on Tuesday.
The game was physical on the perimeter and inside and Bryant head coach Blake Condley acknowledged that it took his team a while to realize how physical it was going to be.
“Once we adjusted to that, we kept it right there where it was but they got that initial lead on us because of that, because of the physical play,” he said. “And I challenged the girls in a timeout and then at halftime too — not literally but figuratively — when they punch us in the mouth we’ve got to punch back. Not physically trying to punch them but to be aggressive and still move the ball. And when they come at you so aggressive, make shot fakes or pass fakes and get them out of there. Then you can do what you want to.
“It wasn’t our energy tonight,” Condley added, referring to the team’s difficultly with that in previous games. “It wasn’t our intensity, it was our execution when we had to play that hard.”
Of Conway, he added, “They have a lot of talent, they’re very athletic, they’re very strong. But, I thought, in the second half, we played hard and executed where, in the first half, we just played hard.”
Impressively, the Lady Hornets, who trailed by 21, 50-29, with 5:27 to play in the game, carved the margin down to 50-41 in three minutes. Stearns and Kiara Moore forced a turnover to gain a chance to get closer but Moore’s driving layup between two defenders failed to fall and failed to draw a whistle for a foul.
Conway rushed the ball back up the floor and Enjonae Chambers hit a layup. Another Bryant miss was cashed in by Gault and that stemmed the tide for Conway, which held on the for the win despite converting just 4 of 14 free throws in the game.
“We had it down and the girls were fighting and scrapping and playing hard,” Condley noted. “I told them afterwards, I thought we grew up a lot tonight, even though we didn’t win. I think we made some strides to help us do some things this next week and a half and, hopefully, get ourselves in the State tournament. We’ll be a better team for it.”
Bryant’s rally began with a scintillating drive up the baseline by McKenzie Adams, which she finished off with a reverse layup. Stearns blocked a shot by Chambers and, at the other end, Adams canned a running jumper to make it 50-33.
Adams, who led Bryant with 20 points, made a steal and Moore drove for a layup to chop the lead to 50-38.
Conway took its second timeout in 30 seconds and returned to the floor in a spread offense designed to eat clock. Conway’s woes from the free-throw line was yet to be a factor, since the Lady Hornets had only been cited for three fouls in the half despite their more aggressive play. Still, Moore and Adams forced a turnover with a double-team near midcourt. The result was three-point play for Moore that had Bryant within 50-41 with 2:23 to play, setting up the momentum-busting series of events.
Moore finished with 8 points. Breanna Blundell had 6 and Stearns 5.
Conway opened up a 9-2 lead at the outset of the game. Adams hit a 3 but a basket by Allen-Smith inside and a buzzer-beating 3 by Claire Hobbs produced the 14-5 margin.
The teams traded baskets early in the second quarter before, trailing 20-9, Bryant got a lift from a 3-point by London Abernathy. Adams made a steal, drove to the other end, and stopped to let Gault fly by before hitting her layup and making it 20-14.
Bryant missed two opportunities at the line but couldn’t get their free throws to fall.
Going into the last two minutes of the half, Conway held a 26-19 lead but, sparked by Gault, the Lady Cats scored the last 7 points to increase their lead to 33-19 at the break.
Baskets by Blundell and Adams, along with a pair of free throws by the sophomore guard, had the Lady Hornets within 37-25 but Conway again closed the quarter strong, pushing the lead to 46-25 going into the fourth quarter.
Blundell and Stearns traded baskets with Gault and Allen-Smith early in the final period before the Lady Hornets put together their ill-fated comeback.
LADY WAMPUS CATS 54, LADY HORNETS 42
Score by quarters
BRYANT 5 14 6 17 — 42
Conway 14 19 13 8 — 54
LADY HORNETS (16-6, 3-6) 42
Player fg-fga ft-fta reb fls pts
o-d-t
Moore 3-10 2-5 1-1 2 5 8
Adams 8-18 3-3 3-2 5 0 20
Abernathy 1-8 0-0 2-4 6 3 3
Stearns 2-6 0-0 2-3 5 4 5
Blundell 3-6 0-0 1-3 4 3 6
Hogancamp 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Meyer 0-0 0-2 1-0 1 0 0
Davis 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Davidson 0-1 0-0 1-0 1 0 0
Team 4-2 6
Totals 17-50 5-10 15-15 30 16 52
LADY WAMPUS CATS (18-5, 6-5) 54
Player fg-fga ft-fta reb fls pts
o-d-t
Foster 0-6 0-2 1-1 2 2 0
Chambers 1-7 0-0 0-4 4 4 2
Clardy 1-5 0-2 1-1 2 3 3
Allen-Smith 8-14 0-3 8-10 18 2 17
B.Hobbs 4-6 0-3 4-4 8 3 8
Gault 8-15 4-4 3-4 7 2 21
C.Hobbs 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 3
Team 2-0 2
Totals 23-54 4-14 19-24 43 16 54
Three-point field goals: Bryant 3-18 (Abernathy 1-7, Adams 1-5, Stearns 1-1, Moore 0-4, Blundell 0-1), Conway 4-12 (Gault 1-3, Clardy 1-2, Allen-Smith 1-1, C.Hobbs 1-1, Foster 0-3, Chambers 0-2). Turnovers: Bryant 10, Conway 13.
