Lady Hornets overcome pesky Lady Trojans, surge to 50-30 victory
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 — McKenzie Adams and Abbi Stearns scored 26 of the Bryant Lady Hornets’ first 28 points to help the team establish an early lead on the pesky Hot Springs Lady Trojans Tuesday.
The Lady Hornets, now 11-0, gradually pulled away in the second half to post[more] a 50-30 victory and advance to the semifinals of the annual Summit Bank Spa City Shootout at Summit Arena in Hot Springs. They play the Central Arkansas Christian Lady Mustangs on Wednesday at 4 p.m.
Adams finished with 21 points. Stearns added 10 to go with 10 rebounds and six blocked shots.
“We had three days of doing nothing and then kind of a half day then we had one day of practice before we played,” noted Bryant head coach Blake Condley. “I always worry about that, about coming to the arena, the different atmosphere, real quiet, not much going on and just getting the girls to go ahead and play with the energy and intensity they need to; but they have to create their own. When there’s not any from the crowd or from anything else, you have to create your own. I think we started doing that as the game went.”
Hot Springs, led by Shakela Shaw’s 16 points led early. It was 4-0 before Adams hit a 3 to get Bryant on the board. Keonka Evans drove for a layup to give the Lady Trojans a 6-3 lead but Bryant scored the next 7 points. Adams added a jumper off a drive than another 3 before Stearns took it to the rack for a bucket to make it 10-6 and force a Hot Springs timeout.
But Evans hit a 3 in the final minute of the quarter and Bryant’s lead was 1 points going into the second quarter.
And when Jessica Riddley opened the scoring in the second period with a 3, the Lady Trojans had fought back for a lead.
Another 7-0 run by Bryant followed, however, and the Lady Hornets were ahead to stay. A driving jumper by Adams tied it and Stearns added a free throw. Two from the stripe by Adams and a layup by Breanna Blundell made it 17-12.
The Lady Trojans wouldn’t go away, however. An offensive rebound basket by Crystal Osborne and a driving layup from Shaw had them within a point again but a spinning, driving jumper by Adams and an offensive-rebound basket by Stearns made it 21-16 at the half.
Shaw cut the margin to 3 with a basket to start the second half but Adams hit two free throws before Stearns canned a 3 from the right corner to produce the first double-digit lead, 28-18.
After a timeout, Riddley scored inside for Hot Springs but a 3-pointer by London Abernathy bumped the lead to 11. Evans and Stearns traded baskets then Shaw scored to cut the margin to 33-24. The Lady Trojans had a chance to get closer but Stearns rejected a shot and, at the other end, Blundell beat the buzzer with a layup to make it 35-24 going into the fourth quarter.
The lead was never less than double digits after that. Blundell and Shaw traded hoops but when Adams came through with a three-point play with 6:11 left, it started a 13-4 run that finished the game off.
Kiara Moore, plagued by foul trouble much of the game, scored all 8 of her points in succession during that stretch including a steal and layup on the heels of Adams’ three-point play. She fouled out with 2:04 left but, by then the Lady Hornets led 48-30.
Abernathy’s baseline jumper with 1:14 left made it a 20-point spread and reserves closed out the game.
“The second half, I was pleased,” Condley stated. “I thought we made some adjustments defensively. They were doing a couple of things that gave us problems, things we didn’t have a scouting report on. But we were able to talk about it. The girls made the adjustments then we started guarding them a lot better than what we did in the first half. We gave up too many easy baskets in the first half.
“I was pleased offensively,” he added. “We started looking at wanting to get the best shot we could get and I thought the girls did a good job of doing that; not just taking the first shot that was going to go up but be patient and let’s get the best shot we can. It’s a little different from things that we’ve done but the last set of games we’ve got before conference, we’re trying to get everything ready.”
LADY HORNETS 50, LADY TROJANS 30
Score by quarters
BRYANT 10 11 14 15 — 50
Hot Springs 9 7 8 6 — 30
LADY HORNETS (11-0) 50
Player fg-fga ft-fta reb fls pts
o-d-t
Moore 4-6 0-0 1-1 2 5 8
Adams 7-12 5-5 1-3 4 2 21
Abernathy 2-10 0-0 1-3 4 1 5
Stearns 4-5 1-2 3-7 10 1 10
Blundell 3-9 0-0 0-1 1 0 6
Davis 0-0 0-0 1-0 1 4 0
Meyer 0-0 0-0 0-1 1 0 0
Hogancamp 0-2 0-0 0-1 1 2 0
Davidson 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Rice 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Scarlett 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Murphy 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Ball 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Choate 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Aguilar 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Team 2-6 8
Totals 20-45 6-7 9-23 32 15 50
LADY TROJANS (7-4) 30
Player fg-fga ft-fta reb fls pts
o-d-t
Evans 3-14 0-2 1-5 6 1 7
Osborne 1-2 0-0 3-2 5 2 2
Shaw 7-15 2-7 2-3 5 2 16
Woodard 0-5 0-0 3-0 3 0 0
Riddley 2-5 0-0 0-2 2 1 5
S.White 0-2 0-0 1-1 2 1 0
B.White 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Warren 0-0 0-0 1-0 1 0 0
Hicks0-20-00-0 000
Team 2-2 4
Totals 13-45 2-9 13-15 28 7 30
Three-point field goals: Bryant 4-10 (Adams 2-2, Abernathy 1-3, Stearns 1-1, Blundell 0-2, Moore 0-1, Hogancamp 0-1), Hot Springs 2-13 (Evans 1-6, Riddley 1-4, Hicks 0-2, S.White 0-1). Turnovers: Bryant 9, Hot Springs 11.
