By Rob Patrick

LITTLE ROCK — The Bryant Lady Hornets’ seniors just know how to win.

Though they trailed the Little Rock Central Lady Tigers for most of their 7A-Central Conference game at the sweat box also known as the Tiger Den, the Lady Hornets found a way to extract a 47-42 win. The fact that they held the Lady Tigers to just 2 points over the final six minutes of the game was integral.

“I felt like, through the whole course of the game, they never looked like they expected anything other than we were going to win,” Bryant head coach Blake Condley said of his players. “They were the same start to finish, no panic, no frustrations. We just kept doing what we’ve been doing.

“Central didn’t give us anything tonight,” he noted. “We had to work and earn it. Central played real hard. They were aggressive. I thought they did a lot of good things. We just had to fight through that in order to be able to win.”

As a result of the victory, the Lady Hornets will be the No. 2 seed from the league to the Class 7A State Tournament in Van Buren. They’ve earned a first-round bye and they won’t run into the unbeaten Central champs from North Little Rock until the finals, if they can get there.

By Rob Patrick

LITTLE ROCK — It’s telling that the Most Valuable Player at the 64th annual Joe T. Robinson Invitational Tournament had 24 points in three games.

That’s 8 a game.

Not what you’d expect of an MVP?

Well, Alana Morris is not just a scorer. In fact, she’s typical of the Bryant Lady Hornets in 2009 in that she excels in a variety of facets of the game: Defense, rebounding, ball-handling, passing.

That’s how you not only win tournament MVP awards but how you win tournaments.

For the second time this year already, the Lady Hornets captured a tournament championship, following up their season-opening sweep through the Crabtree Invitational in Bentonville with the big trophy from the venerable old Joe T. Tourney with a convincing 48-32 win over the Pulaski Academy Lady Bruins on Friday night.

By Rob Patrick

LITTLE ROCK — The Bryant Lady Hornets advanced to the championship game of the 64th Joe T. Robinson Tournament at Pulaski Robinson High School after outlasting the Arkadelphia Lady Badgers, 52-37, in the semifinals on Thursday night.

Bryant will play Pulaski Academy for the championship tonight at 7.The win improved the Lady Hornets to 6-0. It was their fourth straight win by exactly 15 points. (The other two were by 14 and 19, respectively.) But it may have included as much adversity as the team has seen this season.

The Lady Badgers were a “tough out” as they say in baseball. They played a stingy 2-3 zone defense and attacked Bryant’s rotation of defenses effectively for quite a while. The Lady Hornets put together a 14-2 blitz at the end of the third quarter to gain some breathing room.

By Rob Patrick

LITTLE ROCK — Most of what the Bryant Lady Hornets basketball team does in 2009 is really all about 2010.

That’s because the talented, senior-laden squad has aspirations that are all about the 7A-Central Conference, which begins in January 2010, and the Class 7A State Tournament, which happens in March.

BENTONVILLE — The Bryant Lady Hornets were set to meet the Bentonville Lady Tigers in the championship of the Crabtree Invitational Tournament today after both won close semifinal contests on Friday.

Bentonville improved to 3-0 with a 30-28 win over Huntsville while the Lady Hornets improved to 2-0 with a 69-60 win over Texarkana.

BENTONVILLE — Kenzee Calley erupted for 18 points to lead four players in double figures as the Bryant Lady Hornets opened the 2009-10 basketball season with a 65-51 win over Duchesne, Mo., in the first round of the Crabtree Invitational Tournament on Thursday.

The Lady Hornets were set to play Texarkana on Friday at 8 p.m., in the tourney semfinals.

Alana Morris added 14 points, Hannah Goshien and Haley Montgomery 10 each for Bryant.

By Rob Patrick

PERRYVILLE — In basketball — it seems more than any other sport — a team from a smaller school can, in a single game, compete with a team from a larger school and a victory is never out of the question.

So, when the Class 7A Bryant Lady Hornets played a pre-season scrimmage against the Class 3A Perryville Lady Mustangs on Thursday, Nov. 12, there were no guarantees that the Lady Hornets would win let along have an easy time of it.Of course, Bryant has a veteran team with high expectations for the 2009-10 season.

And they eased to a 19-2 start against the Lady Mustangs on the way to a 62-37 win.

By Rob Patrick

With her passing, scoring, ball-handling and defense, Bryant Lady Hornets senior Alana Morris can fill up a stat sheet. And that ability has helped give her the opportunity to fill up another sheet, one that secures her a scholarship to continue her education and her basketball career in college.

On Thursday, Nov. 12, Morris officially signed with Tennessee State University of Nashville, Tenn., next fall.