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Lady Hornets upend Lady Panthers
The Lady Hornets improved to 2-0 on the season with a 57-46 victory over the Lady Panthers (0-2). "I thought it was a big team win," Condley said. "We had at least two girls in double figures and distributed the ball around. We have a lot of girls making plays and that's making for good team basketball right now." The Lady Hornets' leader on the court was sophomore, Alana Morris. Morris had 14 points and 10 rebounds, getting most of her points from in and around the basket or deep in the paint. "Staying with our game plan was the key," Condley said. "In our minds, we knew what we wanted to do and how we wanted to play the game. I kept reiterating that at halftime and during time-outs and I felt like it was good for us. It really didn't matter what Benton did, we were trying to worry about us, and it paid off." The Lady Hornets game plan was to start from the outside and work to the inside. Brittany Mills sank a 3-pointer to start the game, and then Anna Simpson scored twice while driving through the lane. Morris scored twice from short range.
"We knew we wanted to close out their shooters and not let them hit some shots from the outside," Condley said. "To do that, we had to put pressure on their guards and posts - on everybody - and those were our three keys we talked about. We focused on it." The scoring continued with Carter making a steal and getting a layup to start the Bryant's scoring in the second period. Bryant ended the half with an 8-2 run, led by Morris, Amber Westbrook and Mills. The Lady Hornets led 32-21 at halftime. "We attacked the basket," Condley said. "In my opinion, the ball needs to get inside before we start looking out, if you don't attack before you get the ball inside, it makes it hard."
The Lady Hornets started up again in the fourth period and built their lead to 13 points at two different times. Baskets from Lindsey Cason, Morris, Goshien, Carter and Westbrook allowed Bryant to keep a double-digit lead. "We never got into a good rhythm," said Lady Panthers head coach Jerry Chumley. "We let them have too many transition baskets in the first half and we didn't do a good job on the boards - that's what did us in." Benton had trouble early getting the ball into the middle of their offense, but Brittany Westerman was able to convert a three-point play to tie the game early. Mattison Chilton picked up a basket, but three consecutive misses allowed Bryant to build its lead. Chilton hit two free throws and Julie Davis came off the bench to hit a shot before the end of the first quarter.
"We played even with them after the first half, but we're not the type of team [that] can play from behind, especially when it's double-digits," Chumley said. "We didn't have the good effort for blocking out or doing those types of things. Offensively, we did better in the second half."
"We're still playing for two and a half or three quarters and not four," Chumley said. "We didn't compete for the whole first half, and they had a smart game plan against us. We did a poor job when they missed. They got a lot of second and third shots. You can't do that against a good team. We had some of that deerin the-headlights look about us, but in tough situations you have to overcome that in the first couple of minutes. We didn't start playing until the second half and by then we were down by 11." Chilton, Jones, Haltom and Westerman scored for Benton in the fourth period, but the Lady Panthers could never get closer than nine points. Morris led Bryant with 14 points and 10 rebounds, while Simpson finished with 11 points and Carter scored 10. For the Lady Panthers, Westerman led with 19 points, while Chilton finished with 12 and Curtis scored eight points.
The Lady Panthers made 18 of 32 field goals, were 9 of 12 from the free-throw line, hit 1 of 16 3-pointers, had 30 rebounds, eight steals and three blocks for the game.
8, Westbrook 4, Cason 2 - 57; Lady Panthers - Westerman 19, Chilton 12, Curtis 8, Haltom 5, Davis 2, Jones 2 - 46. |
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