For more photos of this event by Rick Nation, go here
Because the North Little Rock Lady Charging Wildcats have 6’3” Amauri Williams and 5’10” Destine Duckworth on the front line and a pair of 5’10”s to back them up, their guards can release early and get to the other end off of an opponent’s miss much more efficiently than the average rebounding team.
Couple that with a tough man-to-man defense that forced turnovers and transition baskets, they’re tough to contend with.
On Tuesday, the Bryant Lady Hornets turned the ball over 15 times — too many for head coach Brad Matthews — but not a catastrophic number. But North Little Rock and their “bigs” outrebounded the Lady Hornets 46-25 including 11 by Williams and 10 by Duckworth. Too many times those rebounds, along with the turnovers, turned into points, particularly in the second quarter, allowing the Lady Cats to build a 47-25 halftime advantage that turned into a 77-53 victory at Hornet Arena.
It was a tough assignment for the Lady Hornets after missing three games because Matthews had contracted the coronavirus and much of the team had to quarantine until he was cleared last Friday.
“We came back and had a little bit of practice Saturday then Sunday and Monday,” he said. “So, about three practices.”
Despite that, the Lady Hornets played the Lady Cats pretty tough through the first quarter, which ended with North Little Rock up just 25-18. It was a 5-point game with :30 left in the period after Lauren Lain drove for a layup. But Je’Mya Brown, one of those 5’10” reserves scoring in the final seconds to extend the margin.
That actually started a 12-0 run that was extended to 17-1 before the Lady Hornets managed their first field goal of the period, a jumper by Parris Atkins with 1:28 left in the half.
“That was one of the things we talked about before the game, you’ve got to get shots because when you turn it over, they’re so good in transition — there’s so many of them — that’s hard to guard,” Matthews said. “It’s one thing our younger kids haven’t really done well yet is transition defense. And when you don’t transition defense in this league, you’re going to give up a bunch of easy shots.
“I thought the fact that we turned it over a lot midway through the first and into the second was really the difference in the game,” he acknowledged.
The Lady Cats then started the second half with a 10-0 push. It was 63-35 going into the fourth quarter and when Brown scored off the offensive glass to start the fourth quarter, the mercy rule went into effect.
The Lady Hornets outscored the Lady Cats, 18-14, in the fourth quarter as sophomore Natalie Edmonson closed out a 20-point night with two of her six 3’s in the game. Sophomore Emileigh Muse broke out of a shooting slump in the final period with a trio of triples. And freshman Brilynn Findley knocked down her second trey of the game.
“To our kids’ credit, we kept fighting, kept playing,” Matthews stated. “You know, playing teams like that, especially with our kids who are inexperienced and young and, at times, a little timid, that’s the best thing. Playing those kind of teams — big, strong, athletic, talented teams — there’s no substitute for that.”
Atkins finished with 14 points for the Lady Hornets. Muse had 9 points and nine boards.
Bryant is now 7-4 overall and 0-2 in league play going into a home game on Friday against Cabot.
LADY CHARGING WILDCATS 77, LADY HORNETS 53
Score by quarters
No.Little Rock 25 22 16 14 — 77
BRYANT 18 7 10 18 — 53
LADY CHARGING WILDCATS (11-4, 4-1) 77
Hicks 1-4 0-0 3, A.Freeman 4-11 3-6 12, Foster 6-15 0-0 14, Duckworth 9-12 1-1 19, Williams 5-8 2-2 12, Jones 0-1 2-2 2, Vick 0-1 0-0 0, Brown 4-8 0-0 9, G.Freeman 2-4 0-0 6, Fimple 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 31-67 (46%) 8-11 (73%) 77.
LADY HORNETS (7-4, 0-2) 53
Lain 2-8 0-0 4, Atkins 4-15 6-8 14, Edmonson 7-9 0-0 20, Findley 2-13 0-0 6, Muse 3-11 0-0 9, Jordan 0-0 0-0 0, Taylor 0-0 0-0 0, Knight 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-56 (32%) 6-8 (75%) 53.
Three-point field goals: Bryant 11-30 (Edmonson 6-8, Muse 3-9, Findley 2-10, Atkins 0-3), North Little Rock 7-22 (Foster 2-7, G.Freeman 2-3, Hicks 1-3, A.Freeman 1-3, Brown 1-2, Fimple 0-3, Jones 0-1). Turnovers: Bryant 15, North Little Rock 11. Rebounds: Bryant 10-19 29 (Muse 2-7 9, Lain 3-4 7, Atkins 3-2 5, Findley 1-3 4, Edmonson 0-1 1, Taylor 0-1 1, team 1-1 2), North Little Rock 17-29 46 (Williams 3-8 11, Duckworth 4-6 10, Foster 2-4 6, Hicks 2-2 4, A.Freeman 3-1 4, Brown 1-2 3, Jones 0-2 2, G.Freeman 0-2 2, Vick 0-1 1, Fimple 1-0 1, team 1-1 2). Team fouls: Bryant 9, North Little Rock 8.
