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India Atkins goes to the rack around Cabot’s Brooke Stracener (2). (Photo by Kevin Nagle)
CABOT — Causing seven turnovers in the first quarter, the Bryant Lady Hornets built an 11-9 lead over the Cabot Lady Panthers at Panther Arena on Friday night. Hannah Oglivie tied it early in the second period, but Bryant’s Tierra Trotter hit a free throw to make it 12-11 with 7:33 left in the first half.
Bryant didn’t score again until the final minute of the half and the hole that developed, 26-12, at one point was just too deep for the Lady Hornets to dig out of. Cabot held off threats in the third and the fourth quarters to escape with a 55-43 victory.
The Lady Panthers, coming off a 44-30 loss to Little Rock Central on Wednesday in a make-up game after it snowed out the original date on Tuesday, bounced back by converting 14 of 20 free throws in the game compared to Bryant’s 5 of 8.
Cabot also converted 5 of 17 3-point tries while the Lady Hornets were missing their first 15 from long range. Kalia Walker, who led them with 14 points, finally hit a pair of triples late in the game, trimming the margin to 9 before Izzy Arnold and Morgan Westbrook converted at the line in the final 1:13 to secure the victory.
India Atkins and Ivory Russ each had 8 points for the Lady Hornets. Celena Martin added 7 and Trotter 5.
Ivory Russ (34) puts up a shot in traffic Friday night. (Photo by Kevin Nagle)
Cabot was paced by Kenzie Wagner with 13 points. Arnold came in off the bench to score 10.
“I thought the first quarter, we executed really, really well,” said Bryant head coach Brad Matthews. “But we didn’t score a lot. We had a chance to jump up 6, 8, 10 points but it was a two-point game.
“I thought that was a big key because we have dry spells,” he acknowledged. “We should’ve been up 7, 8, 9, 10 points and then you can withstand a little bit of that as we try to grow through it. We executed really well. We just had some empty possessions where we did a lot of good things but didn’t get a lot out of it. Then, in the second quarter, we quit attacking. We were passive on both ends. I’m not sure what causes that, but I’ve got to figure it out because it’s a pattern.”
Atkins scored the game’s first basket off a steal and Celena Martin had a three-point play to make it 5-2.
Tierra Trotter got past a pair of Cabot defenders to get to the basket. (Photo by Kevin Nagle)
Cabot scored the next 7 points to take a 9-5 lead before Russ hit a short jumper and, off a steal, Trotter hit a layup. Atkins made a steal and scored to make it 11-9.
“We’re young. We’re inexperienced. We’re going to have spurts when not everything is perfect,” Matthews said. “But, when we do things really well, we’ve got to get more out of it.
“When you look at our turnovers then you look at the points we get off of those, we’ve got to do a better job converting,” he reiterated. “We’ve been working on it. I see spurts where it gets better. We’re breaking all this stuff down and continuing to teach, trying to make sure that we’re not just prepared for the game. We’re still trying to teach and develop skills. I try to develop their mindset a little bit better. It’s a process. Sometimes that process doesn’t go as fast as I want it to. I think you can still see, in spurts, we’re getting better.”
Cabot’s 15-0 run in the second quarter was halted by Walker’s 15-foot jumper. Martin made a steal and Lexie Taylor wound up at the line where she converted once to make it 26-15 at the half.
Kalia Walker (5) gets hit with a charge on this play as Izzy Arnold to help you remember. (Photo by Kevin Nagle)
To start the third quarter, the Lady Panthers’Emily Belin scored twice off the offensive glass to extend the margin to 30-15.
Bryant picked it up after a Matthews timeout. Atkins scored inside off a nice feed from Martin. Walker drove for a layup and Russ scored inside to trim the margin to 30-21.
Arnold hit a layup to interrupt. Martin got free inside for back-to-back buckets and the lead was down to 7 with Cabot taking a timeout.
When play resumed, the Lady Hornets forced another turnover, but Trotter’s miss and the Lady Panthers had a chance to push back on the rally. Arnold had a conventional 3 then a three-point play before Walker scored again to make it 39-27 going into the fourth quarter.
By the four-minute mark, Cabot had built the lead to 46-31. Trotter drove for a basket then Walker was fouled. Though she missed the front end of the one-and-one, Atkins snatched the rebound and got the ball to Russ for a basket off a drive to make it 46-35.
Cabot head coach Carla Crowder called timeout and it helped. Hannah Chandler hit a 3. Westbrook hit a free throw with 2:29 left, making it 50-35.
Walker finally broke the Lady Hornets’ 3-point slump. She followed up with two free throws and another 3 after Wagner converted twice at the stripe. The lead was down to 52-43 but that was the last push by the Lady Hornets.
“Our guards did a good job of getting the ball to the post,” Matthews noted. “I thought our zone offense looked pretty good. It’s a Friday night in the winter and every basketball coach that loses is going to say, ‘We should’ve made more shots.’ It’s kind of a lame excuse. But, at the end of the day, we executed better in spurts, at times at a pretty high level. But, even when we’re executing that well, we don’t get a lot out of it. That’s what’s frustrating.”
The Lady Hornets have a pair of very tough assignments next week. They’ll host North Little Rock, a five-overtime winner over Fort Smith Northside, on Tuesday. Next Friday, they play at Conway.
LADY PANTHERS 55, LADY HORNETS 43
Score by quarters
BRYANT 11 4 12 16 — 43
Cabot 9 17 13 16 — 55
LADY HORNETS (5-10, 1-3) 43
Trotter 2-10 1-2 5, Walker 5-14 2-2 14, Atkins 4-5 0-0 8, Martin 3-6 1-2 7, Russ 4-8 0-0 8, Taylor 0-1 1-2 1, Gordon 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 18-45 (40%) 5-8 (63%) 43.
LADY PANTHERS (10-7, 3-2) 55
Stracener 1-6 1-2 3, Wagner 4-6 4-5 13, Oglivie 2-4 1-2 5, Westbrook 1-4 2-4 4, Roberts 2-6 0-0 5, Arnold 3-7 3-3 10, Belin 3-4 2-2 8, Chandler 2-4 1-2 7, Thompson 0-1 0-0 0, Nichols 0-0 0-0 0, Dodson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-42 (43%) 14-20 (70%) 55.
Three-point field goals: Bryant 2-18 (Walker 2-10, Trotter 0-6, Martin 0-1, Taylor 0-1), Cabot 5-17 (Chandler 2-4, Arnold 1-5, Roberts 1-3, Wagner 1-3, Stracener 0-2). Turnovers: Bryant 22, Cabot 22. Rebounds: Bryant 10-18 28 (Martin 2-5 7, Russ 4-2 6, Walker 0-4 4, Trotter 0-3 3, Atkins 3-0 3, Gordon 0-1 1, team 1-3 4), Cabot 10-19 29 (Belin 5-6 11, Arnold 0-3 3, Roberts 1-2 3, Westbrook 1-2 3, Stracener 0-2 2, Thompson 2-0 2, Wagner 0-1 1, Oglivie 0-1 1, team 1-2 3). Team fouls: Bryant 17, Cabot 16. Fouled out: Bryant, Trotter.
