Third Spa City Shootout title garnered by Lady Hornets with finals win over Lakeside
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
Photos by Kevin Nagle
HOT SPRINGS — The last three times the Bryant Lady Hornets have played in the Summit Bank Spa City Shootout, they’ve come away with the championship trophy including[more] this year’s prize, secured on Thursday night with a 56-41 win over Hot Springs Lakeside at Summit Arena.
Bryant won the title last season and in 2007. The Lady Hornets didn’t play in the 2008 tourney because of a scheduling snafu. (Incidentally, they were third in 2006 and second in 2005.)
The tourney always serves as a chance to get back into the playing groove following Christmas as it provides one last opportunity to get tuned up for the 7A-Central Conference season. The Lady Hornets will take a 13-0 mark into league play, opening at Mount St. Mary Academy of Little Rock on Friday, Jan. 7.
The upstart Lady Rams of Lakeside came into the game having defeated Mount St. Mary’s Belles, 51-38, in Wednesday’s semifinals after opening with a 47-34 win over Malvern.
Bryant reached the final with a 50-30 romp over Hot Springs on Tuesday and a tougher-than-that 52-42 win over Central Arkansas Christian (which ended up winning the third-place game over Mount, 57-45) on Wednesday.
The game was tied 2-2 then Bryant reeled off an 11-0 run to gain the upper hand then never trailed. Lakeside would whittle the margin down to 6 on two occasions but never got closer.
The Lady Hornets had to fight through early foul trouble. In the first half, two starters, Abbi Stearns and Breanna Blundell, drew three fouls while two more, McKenzie Adams and London Abernathy picked up two. But they got a lift off the bench from junior Callie Hogancamp and sophomores Whitney Meyer and Logan Davis.
“Girls came off the bench and played well for us and that’s the thing,” commented Bryant coach Blake Condley. “We, as a team — coaching staff and players — just have confidence in each other that, if we go through something like that and we need a girl to come off the bench and step up, they’re perfectly capable of doing that. They did tonight.”
Adams led the way with 19 points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals, plus she had the primary defensive challenge, guarding Lakeside’s junior Keri Manning who finished with 12 points in three quarters of play.
“McKenzie’s a great player in that she just takes what comes to her,” Condley commented. “If she can score, she’s going to score. If they come to her and somebody’s open, she’s going to get them the ball. She’s not a selfish kid. She’s going to do what we need her to do in order to win the game. She’s done it as long as I’ve been watching her when she was in seventh and eighth grade.”
Abernathy finished with 9 points, Blundell 7, Kiara Moore 6 and Abbi Stearns 5. Stearns in just over a half of play, matched Adams’ six boards to go with four blocked shots.
Keia Allen finished with 7 points and Lainey Todorovic with 6 for the Lady Rams.
The Lady Hornets’ early charge began with a layup by Stearns off a nice feed from Adams from the right wing to the opposite short corner against the Lakeside zone defense.
Later, Davis and Adams combined on a steal that resulted in a layup for Adams, a 6-2 lead and a timeout by Lakeside.
Davis would add a free throw with 1:55 left in the quarter then, after missing a 3 off a steal by Adams, she made a steal and Adams scored off the offensive glass to make it 9-2. Another steal by Adams led to her driving jumper then Davis came through with another theft to set up a 12-footer by Abernathy to complete the run.
Manning scored off an inbounds play to beat the buzzer and make it 13-4 going into the second quarter.
The Lady Rams had 4 points on 1 of 11 shooting from the field and a pair of free throws at that point to go with 10 turnovers.
A stickback by Stearns made it 15-4 early in the second quarter.
Moore connected on a pair of 3’s during the second period as the lead ballooned to 24-8.
As the fouls started mounting on the Lady Hornets, Lakeside put together a 10-0 run to get within 6 going into the final seconds. But a drive by Adams made it 26-18 at the half.
And when Abernathy canned a 3 to start the third period, the margin was back to double digits.
But Lakeside, with Manning knocking down a pair of shots including a 3, whittled the lead back down to 6 at 31-25 with five minutes left in the third quarter.
Bryant answered with a 19-4 run to take whatever mystery remained out of the game.
The game-breaking blitz started with a drive up the baseline by Adams. Abernathy drove for a bucket and Blundell hit the offensive glass for a trip to the line where she converted twice. Abernathy’s shot from the corner with 1:27 left in the third, made it 39-25.
Lakeside’s Alison Norman interrupted with a stickback but Hogancamp tossed in a 3-pointer and Blundell connected on a pair of free throws after being fouled with :01.6 left on the clock.
Adams made it 46-27 with a pair from the line to start the fourth quarter. She would answer two free throws by Norman with another of her patented pull-up-and-pop drives. Moments later, she fed Davis in the corner for an open jumper that ripped the cords to make it 50-29 with 6:22 left to play.
Bryant led 52-34 when both coaches pulled their starters at the 3:44 mark. Down the stretch, Courtney Davidson hit two free throws and McKenzie Rice popped a 12-footer to finish out the Lady Hornets’ scoring.
Reviewing his team’s progress during the three-day tourney, Condley commented, “I thought we were more comfortable going against a zone. I think we’ve progressively gotten better against it. Teams are trying to take us out of what we’re good at when they go to that zone, but we’ve got girls stepping up making shots. We’ve got girls getting to open spots in that zone, that we weren’t doing at the beginning of the year. Now we’re starting to figure it out and get them to the right spots for us to be successful against the zones.”
LADY HORNETS 56, LADY RAMS 41
Score by quarters
BRYANT 13 13 18 12 — 56
Lakeside 4 14 9 14 — 41
LADY HORNETS (13-0) 56
Player fg-fga ft-fta reb fls pts
o-d-t
Moore 2-3 0-0 0-4 4 4 6
Adams 7-12 5-6 3-3 6 3 19
Abernathy 4-11 0-0 3-2 5 4 9
Stearns 2-7 1-3 3-3 6 4 5
Blundell 1-6 5-6 5-0 5 3 7
Meyer 0-3 0-0 2-3 5 0 0
Davis 1-7 1-2 0-1 1 2 3
Hogancamp 1-4 0-0 1-0 1 1 3
Ball 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Rice 1-1 0-0 0-1 1 1 2
Davidson 0-0 2-2 0-0 0 1 2
Aguilar 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Murphy 0-0 0-0 0-2 2 0 0
Scarlett 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Choate 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Team 1-2 3
Totals 19-54 14-19 18-21 39 24 56
LADY RAMS (6-4) 41
Player fg-fga ft-fta reb fls pts
o-d-t
Allen 1-2 4-5 0-0 0 1 7
Manning 3-11 5-8 1-2 3 4 12
Norman 1-9 3-4 6-3 9 3 5
Wiley 1-5 1-2 0-4 4 2 3
Hamilton 2-9 0-2 5-5 10 2 4
Ellis 2-6 0-0 2-2 4 0 4
Plumley 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Todorovic 1-2 4-4 0-1 1 3 6
Evans 0-0 0-0 1-0 1 1 0
King 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Stuart 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Standage 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Team 4-3 7
Totals 11-47 17-25 19-20 39 17 41
Three-point field goals: Bryant 4-13 (Moore 2-3, Abernathy 1-2, Hogancamp 1-2, Davis 0-3, Adams 0-2, Stearns 0-1), Hot Springs Lakeside 2-11 (Allen 1-2, Manning 1-2, Norman 0-3, Ellis 0-2, Wiley 0-1, Hamilton 0-1). Turnovers: Bryant 15, Hot Springs Lakeside 21. Technical foul: Bryant, Stearns.
