Weaver sparks Lady Hornets to league win over Lake Hamilton
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).
Photos by Kevin Nagle
By Rob Patrick
If the old adage is true that you feed a fever and starve a cold, then the Bryant Lady Hornets followed instructions pretty well Tuesday night against the Lake Hamilton Lady Wolves.
Starting with junior Peyton Weaver scorching the nets for 3-pointers on her first three shots of the game, the Lady Hornets kept facilitating whoever had the hot hand. Logan Davis had a spree in the second quarter then Dezerea Duckworth and Courtney Davidson got going in the third. In addition, Whitney Meyer, the Lady Hornets’ post player who usually supplies picks, rebounding and defense, pitched in with 6 points in the second half.
As for the cold part, the Lady Hornets clamped down on defense when Lake Hamilton began to struggle to score. The Lady Wolves, notably without their top player Kori Bullard, wound up shooting just 22 percent from the floor (9 of 41) as they absorbed a 50-26 loss to Bryant.
The reliable 3D attack produced 31 points for the Lady Hornets. Davis finished with a game-high 13 points with Duckworth finishing with 10 and Davidson 9 to go with 11 rebounds despite early foul trouble. Weaver stepped up with 12 points to go with Meyer’s 6 points, six boards and three blocked shots.
Bryant improved to 3-3 in the South Conference, just 4 points either way of being 5-1. They face a pair of challenging road games next, visiting El Dorado to wrap up the first round of the league slate on Friday then starting round two at Benton on Tuesday, Jan. 29. Both teams are ahead of Bryant in the standings with Benton still unbeaten.
“One banked in and one not banked in away from being 5-1,” acknowledged Lady Hornets head coach Brad Matthews. “We’re playing well. Jayla (Anderson) played well at Texarkana, Peyton played well tonight. I thought Whitney Meyer had her best game since probably December. As we head down the stretch, we need that. We need to be more diverse, night in and night out. Hopefully as we move through we’re starting to see that and we can build on that going forward.”
Lake Hamilton actually kept up for most of the first quarter, answering Weaver’s first two triples and a sparkling reverse layup off a drive up the baseline by Davis. But when Weaver drained her third troika with 2:52 left in the period, Bryant was up for good.
Davis nailed a 3 to start the second quarter. The Lady Wolves, behind Karli Herron stayed within 17-13 going into the final three minutes of the half and had a chance to get closer. But Davis made a steal and a layup and, after a Lake Hamilton miss, drilled another 3 to extend the margin to 22-13.
Kylie Frazier, who led Lake Hamilton with 12 points, hit a 3 and traded baskets with Duckworth to make it 24-18 at the half.
“We shot it well,” Matthews said. “I thought that helped our defense, helped our rebounding. Anytime you shoot it well, you play with more confidence, make better decisions. We still had a few breakdowns rebounding but I thought, for the most part, we defended well and rebounded well.
“We had our energy level up after we made some shots early,” he continued. “I thought that carried over. I think Logan and Peyton made some 3’s and that kind of spread their defense out. That allowed Dezerea and Courtney to get to the rim easier in the second half.”
And indeed they did. First, Weaver started the second half like she did the first with a 3-point bomb from the corner. Meyer forced Lake Hamilton’s Hailey Humphreys to alter her shot at the other end setting up a drive and dish by Duckworth that Meyer cashed in with an 8-foot jumper, giving Bryant its first double-digit lead at 29-18.
After a Lake Hamilton timeout, the Lady Hornets forced a five-second call on the inbounds play and Duckworth slashed to the rack for a basket.
The game-breaking 15-0 run continued with Meyer following her own miss for a basket. Lake Hamilton’s Brandy Scott missed and Meyer saved the rebound to Duckworth. Moments later, Duckworth slashed through the Lady Wolves defense, drew the defense and dished to Davidson for a bucket.
To complete the blitz, Duckworth stole a rebound off a Lake Hamilton miss and dashed to the other end for a basket that made it 39-18.
Frazier finally got Lake Hamilton’s first points of the second half at the 2:02 mark with a 3. Duckworth drove for another layup and, after Herron hit a pair of free throws, Davidson took another feed for an easy 2, making it 43-22 going into the fourth quarter.
Davidson scored off a drive to start the final period. After Lake Hamilton’s K.K. Nelson and Davis traded free throws, Davis attacked the basket to make it 48-23. And when Meyer grabbed an offensive rebound and scored with 2:00 left, the Lady Hornets had their largest lead of the game at 50-23 and reserves closed out the victory.
“Hopefully, we can use this to kind of build off of,” Matthews stated. “We’ve got a tough road trip to El Dorado on Friday. We’ve got over half the conference season left. Hopefully, we can just keep getting better and better heading toward the State tournament.”
LADY HORNETS 50, LADY WOLVES 26
Score by quarter
Lake Hamilton 9 9 4 4 — 26
BRYANT 12 12 19 7 — 50
LADY WOLVES (10-7, 1-4) 26
Player fg-fga ft-fta reb fls pts
o-d-t
Herron 2-10 1-2 1-1 2 1 5
Frazier 5-11 0-0 0-0 0 2 12
Bullard 1-2 2-2 0-1 1 1 5
Crone 0-3 0-1 0-1 1 0 0
Humphreys 0-5 0-0 3-3 6 1 0
Vinyard 0-1 0-2 0-0 0 0 0
Sorrell 0-1 0-0 2-1 3 0 0
Scott 0-3 0-0 0-2 2 0 0
West 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Evans 0-0 0-0 0-1 1 0 0
Nelson 0-1 1-2 0-0 0 1 1
Norris 0-0 0-0 1-0 1 1 0
Suta 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Thompson 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 3
Team 2-4 6
Totals 9-41 4-9 9-14 23 7 26
LADY HORNETS (9-11, 3-3) 26
Player fg-fga ft-fta reb fls pts
o-d-t
Duckworth 5-11 0-2 2-5 7 0 10
Davis 5-12 1-2 0-3 3 1 13
Weaver 4-7 0-0 1-2 3 1 12
Davidson 4-9 1-2 2-9 11 2 9
Meyer 3-4 0-0 4-2 6 3 6
Scarlett 0-0 0-0 0-1 1 2 0
Smith 0-1 0-0 1-1 2 1 0
Anderson 0-0 0-0 1-0 1 1 0
Murphy 0-0 0-2 0-1 1 0 0
Nichols 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Baxter 0-0 0-0 0-1 1 0 0
Team 0-2 2
Totals 21-44 2-8 11-27 38 11 50
Three-point field goals: Lake Hamilton 4-14 (Frazier 2-4, Bullard 1-2, Thompson 1-2, Herron 0-4, Vinyard 0-1), Bryant 6-12 (Weaver 4-7, Davis 2-3, Duckworth 0-1, Davidson 0-1). Turnovers: Lake Hamilton 9, Bryant 9.
