For more photos of this event by Kevin Nagle, go here
CABOT — After a heartbreaking home loss in their Central Arkansas Junior High Conference opener last week, the Bryant Lady Hornets freshman team stepped up on the road with a 39-33 victory in league play over the Cabot South Lady Panthers on Monday.
The Lady Panthers managed a 10-8 lead at the end of the first quarter but the Lady Hornets rallied and led 20-17 at the half then 32-30 going into the fourth quarter.
“After playing Benton (a narrow victory) and Conway Blue (the loss), we really wanted to stress fundamentals in practice,” said Lady Hornets coach Nathan Castaldi. “We focused on ourselves as we played Cabot South.
“We handled their pressure much better than we did against those teams from last week,” he noted. “Our kids have been working very hard on that in practice and I think we started to see some of that work carry over into games. We still rushed some things on offense, but we got just about any shot we wanted.”
Emileigh Muse led the Lady Hornets with 15 points. Natalie Edmonson had 9, Lauren Lain 6. Lyniyae Johnson and Haya Winfield score 4 each and Mia Winston hit a free throw.
“Defensively we played well at times,” Castaldi said. “We would have small stretches where some bad habits would come out but other than that we played well.
“Emileigh probably played her best game overall for us,” he mentioned. “She protected the ball, got us into and out of stuff on offense and shot it well. She hit two big free throws down the stretch to make it a two-possession game.”
Now 12-2 overall this season, the Lady Hornets travel Thursday to play Lake Hamilton.
