By Rob Patrick
TEXARKANA, Texas — With 47 seconds left in the third quarter, the Texarkana, Texas, Lady[more] Tigers, who came into Friday night’s game against the Bryant Lady Hornets with a gaudy 13-2 record, were more than a little concerned.
You see, the Lady Hornets had taken their best shot early on, falling behind 10-0, but had come all the way back to take a lead. And every time the Lady Tigers made a play to draw even or take the lead back during that third period, Bryant had answers.
Texas High just couldn’t seem to shake the Lady Hornets and, at that 47 second mark of that third period, Bryant’s Dezerea Duckworth had hit a 3 to give her team a 40-39 lead.
The battle continued as the Lady Tigers’ Jalissa Trotter scored inside to put her team up by a point. But, after a Bryant miss, Angel Crump beat the buzzer with a 3 to make it 44-40 going into the final eight minutes of the game.
That little push at the end of the quarter turned into an 11-0 run that had Texas High back up by 10. Bryant’s Courtney Davidson banked in a 3 and, after a Lady Tigers miss, Logan Davis drove for a layup to cut that lead in half but that’s as close as Bryant would get down the stretch.
Leading 52-47 with 2:37 left, the Lady Tigers spread the floor and eventually put the game away for a 62-52 win.
Bryant was still within 6 with :45.3 left. Trotter hit a free throw then missed her second shot. When K.T. Davis grabbed the rebound off a high carom and stuck it back in, the lead was 9 with too little time for the Lady Hornets to rally.
“They came out and just punched us in the mouth,” noted Lady Hornets coach Brad Matthews. “But we battled back and took the lead. They just made more plays down the stretch, more shots down the stretch than we did.
“I thought our kids overall played really well,” he added. “You tip your hat to them. They just beat us tonight. They were just better than we were tonight.”
Four of Texas High’s five starters scored in double figures, led by Chanell Hayes with 17. K.T. Davis added 15, Trotter 13 and LaMonica Morgan 10.
Logan Davis led Bryant with 17 including five 3-points. Courtney Davidson added 16 and Duckworth 11. The Lady Hornets got a lift off the bench from Hayley Murphy who pitched in with 6 points, all in the second quarter. Jayla Anderson had a basket as well.
“We just couldn’t guard them,” Matthews said. “I thought our kids gave good effort tonight. I thought, for the most part, we weren’t bad defensively. They shot it really well and they have a variety of kids that can score. (Hayes) and (Trotter) played really well and I tried to commit more of our focus stopping them. They’re just two really good players. But they had two or three or four other kids step up and make shot after shot. It’s a good team. That’s what good teams do.
“I thought offensively we really played well,” he continued. “I thought we executed really well. We just didn’t get enough stops at the end to win the game.”
As mentioned, it didn’t look good early. But after that 10-0 run to start the game, Bryant played the Lady Tigers even.
Duckworth put the first points on the board for the Lady Hornets with two free throws at the 2:15 mark of the first quarter. Still, Texas High held a 14-4 lead going into the second stanza.
That’s when Logan Davis got hot. She traded 3’s with first K.T. Davis then Hayes. Duckworth fed Davidson for a layup and, after a miss at the other end, Davidson drove for a basket that cut the margin to 20-14 and forced Texas High to take a timeout.
When play resumed, the Lady Tigers pushed the lead back to 10 before Murphy scored in the post. Moments later, she got free inside and was fouled, making one free throw to cut the lead to 7.
A Texarkana turnover resulted in Logan Davis’ third 3 of the quarter, off a kick-out pass from Davidson. Another turnover was cashed in by Murphy, who wound up completing a three-point play that had the lead trimmed to 24-23.
Two free throws by Morgan with :02.3 left in the quarter pushed the margin back to 3 at the half.
But when Logan Davis started the third-quarter scoring with yet another triple, the game was tied 26-26. The game would be tied at 31, 33, 35 and 37 before Trotter scored but was answered by Duckworth’s 3 giving Bryant its 40-39 edge,
“We’ll take a few things out of this that we can do better and look forward to a very good Hot Springs tournament over Christmas,” Matthews stated.
The Lady Hornets begin play in the annual Spa City Shootout at Summit Arena in Hot Springs Thursday, Dec. 27, against the Lady Trojans of Hot Springs. Tipoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.
LADY TIGERS 62, LADY HORNETS 52
Score by quarters
BRYANT 4 19 17 12 — 52
Texas High 14 12 18 18 — 62
LADY HORNETS (5-6) 52
Player fg-fga ft-fta reb fls pts
o-d-t
Duckworth 3-6 4-4 0-5 5 4 11
L.Davis 6-12 0-0 1-3 4 2 17
Davidson 6-9 3-4 2-4 6 2 16
Meyer 0-1 0-0 1-2 3 1 0
Scarlett 0-0 0-0 0-1 1 1 0
Nichols 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 2 0
Murphy 2-3 2-3 0-1 1 0 6
Smith 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Anderson 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 2
Team 0-1 1
Totals 18-33 9-11 4-17 21 13 52
LADY TIGERS (14-2) 62
Player fg-fga ft-fta reb fls pts
o-d-t
Crump 3-5 0-0 0-1 1 1 7
Morgan 2-3 4-4 1-1 2 1 10
K.Davis 7-15 0-0 2-2 4 4 15
Trotter 6-9 1-3 4-5 9 3 13
Hayes 5-17 5-6 1-1 2 1 17
Clayton 0-0 0-0 0-1 1 0 0
Lott 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Pierce 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Team 3-1 4
Totals 23-49 10-13 11-12 23 10 62
Three-point field goals: Bryant 9-13 (L.Davis 5-10, Duckworth 1-2, Davidson 1-1), Texas High 6-15 (Hayes 2-8, Morgan 2-2, K.Davis 1-2, Crump 1-2, Trotter 0-1). Turnovers: Bryant 16, Texas High 7.
