By Rob Patrick
The Bryant Lady Hornets freshman basketball team started both halves of their season-opening game by out-scoring the Morrilton Lady Devil Pups 11-2 on their way to a 42-22 victory on Monday night.
McKenzie Adams pumped in a game-high 18 points while the Lady Hornets forced 23 turnovers, out-rebounded the Lady Pups 40-22 and held them to 22 percent shooting from the field in the game.[more]
“Of course, we like the results,” stated Lady Hornets head coach Eric Andrews. “We got off to a little bit of a slow start, knocking the rust off, a little bit of nerves and all that stuff. Once we started rolling a little bit, things started looking a whole lot better.”
Bryant led just 5-2 going into the final 2:30 of the first quarter when an 8-0 run put them in charge.
Two free throws by Logan Davis started the breakout then Courtney Davidson scored twice on offensive rebounds, the second time, after a steal by Adams. To start the second quarter, Adams drove for a layup and the lead was 13-2.
Davidson would finish with a game-high 11 rebounds to go with 6 points. Davis finished with 8 points. Kiara Moore pitched in with 6 while working the point for the Lady Hornets. She contributed a great deal to the fact that Bryant only committed 11 turnovers in the game.
Sparked by a 3-pointer from Ayana Trezvant, the Lady Pups surged in the second quarter. They were within 23-15 late in the half but Davidson hit a short jumper with :12 left that pushed the lead back out to 25-15.
The Lady Hornets then blew the game open in the third quarter by forcing six turnovers and cashing in on them. It was 27-16 before Adams hit a free throw with 2:01 left in the period. Davis drove for a layup then Adams scored off a steal to make it 32-16.
A free throw interrupted but Moore hit a layup after getting behind the defense and, after Adams made a steal, she converted two free throws to set the score at 36-17 going into the final quarter.
And when McKenzie Rice hit a layup off a nice feed from Moore and Hayley Murphy hit an eight-foot jumper to start the scoring in the final period, the advantage was up to 23.
“I was real happy with our half-court defense,” Andrews said. “We missed a lot of shots we normally make but it was definitely a good start. I thought we came out after the half and really did a good job.”
The Lady Hornets are tentatively expected to return to action on Thursday, Nov. 12, at home against Arkadelphia. After that comes the Bryant Invitational from Nov. 16-19.
BRYANT 42, MORRILTON 22
Score by quarters
Morrilton 2 13 2 5 — 22
BRYANT 11 14 11 6 — 42
LADY DEVIL PUPS 22
Trezvant 2-6 1-1 6, McCoy 1-9 2-3 4, McKey 0-3 0-0 0, Brockman 1-6 2-2 4, KT Davis 1-1 0-0 2, Price 0-1 2-4 2, Stinnett 2-4 0-0 4, Clemmons 0-1 0-0 0, Everette 0-0 0-0 0, Criswell 0-1 0-2 0. Totals: 7-32 7-12 22
LADY HORNETS 42
Moore 3-10 0-0 6, L.Davis 3-8 2-4 8, Buck 0-2 0-0 , Davidson 3-8 0-2 6, Adams 6-16 6-8 18, Myer 0-1 0-0 0, Rice 1-1 0-0 2, Murphy 1-1 0-0 2, Yazza 0-1 0-0 0, Henderson 0-0 0-0 0, McPherson 0-2 0-0 0, Scarlett 0-0 0-0 0, Combs 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 17-51 8-14 42.
Three-point field goals: Morrilton 1-5 (Trezvant 1-1, Brockman 0-3, McKey 0-1), Bryant 0-6 (Adams 0-2, Buck 0-1, Davis 0-1, Moore 0-1, Scarlett 0-1). Rebounds: Morrilton 22 (K.Davis, Stinnett 4), Bryant 40 (Davidson 11). Turnovers: Morrilton 18, Bryant 11. Team fouls: Morrilton 11, Bryant 16.
