Lady Hornets challenged by game Belles but extract win to clinch State bid
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 continue posting 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
The Bryant Lady Hornets officially clinched a bid to the Class 7A State Tournament with a hard-earned 62-53 win over the Mount St. Mary Academy Belles. At 18-8 overall and 5-8 in the 7A/6A-Central Conference, the Lady Hornets can earn a No. 5 seed with a win at home tonight in their regular-season finale against Little Rock Central. They will be the sixth seed should the Lady Tigers prevail.
Credit the Belles, who came into the game out of contention with a 5-19 overall mark, 1-11 in league play. They turned in a gritty performance and led much of the game, led by the hot shooting of guard Summer Khairi who finished with 22 points.
It took a 12-2 fourth-quarter run for the Lady Hornets to gain the upper hand for good.
Sophomores McKenzie Adams, Courtney Davidson and Kiara Moore came off the bench to combine for 42 of Bryant’s points in the game. Adams and Moore, usually starters, did not play in the first quarter. Head coach Blake Condley called it an in-house matter and didn’t comment further about it.
Adams finished with a game-high 24 points. Davidson had a season-high 10 and Moore scored 8. Junior London Abernathy finished with 8 as well. Callie Hogancamp made the start and scored 6.
Bryant led early 6-4 on 3-pointers by Hogancamp and Abernathy but the Belles, sparked by Khairi went on a 12-0 run to build a lead they would hold for most of the first half. Khairi scored 10 of those 12 points capping the run with a three-point play and a 3-point bomb.
Abbi Stearns ended the lull for Bryant but Khairi beat the buzzer with a baseline jumper to make it 18-8.
Behind Adams and Davidson, the Lady Hornets trimmed the margin to 19-16. Hogancamp’s free throw with 3:11 left, trimmed it to 2 before Khairi scored again. Hogancamp answered with a baseline jumper and, after a Mount miss, Davidson hit two free throws to tie the game.
“I’ve known that she can play that way,” Condley said of Davidson. “I’ve seen her do that before. We’ve just been trying to get her to consistently play hard and bring aggressiveness and do the things that she can do. There’s no doubt in my mind that she can consistently do that. I’ve got all the confidence in the world that she’ll be able to do that and hopefully finish out this year strong then we’ll be looking for good things from her the next couple of years.”
A three-point play by Catie McAlister kept the Belles on top. Adams drove the baseline for a bucket then turned in a three-point play with :49.8 left in the half to give her team a 26-24 edge only to have Annie Stafford can a 3 to give Mount St. Mary a 27-26 lead at the half.
The teams traded baskets for most of the third quarter. Emily Sprick sparked Mount late, scoring 8 of her 11 points for the game in the final three minutes of the period. Adams had tied the game with 1:08 left in the period then Sprick drained a 3. Breanna Blundell answered from 15-feet but when Sprick scored inside in the final seconds, the Belles held a 43-40 lead.
Moore’s 3-pointer tied the game to start the fourth. She followed up with a steal that led to a 3 from Abernathy, giving the Lady Hornets a 46-43 lead, their largest of the game to that point.
Khairi tied it back up with a triple but when Adams grabbed an offensive rebound, scored and was fouled, the Lady Hornets’ tell-tale run was underway. She converted the free throw to give Bryant a 49-46 lead.
The Lady Hornets would not trail again.
McAlister answered to trim the margin to 1 but Davidson hit a layup, Adams drove for a bucket and Moore hit a free throw. Abernathy knocked down two at the line then so did Blundell to complete the run. Bryant led 58-48.
Khairi hit one last 3 but free throws by Adams and Moore closed out the win.
“I just think us continuing to play hard and maintaining our intensity (was the key),“ Condley stated. “I was happy for the most part that we played with energy. We played with intensity. We were able to score 22 points in the fourth quarter and that’s pretty good. To do that at the end of the game, that means you’re maintaining what we started with. Some of it was, I think, that we got into their legs. We were getting easy shots.”
LADY HORNETS 62, BELLES 53
Score by quarters
Mount St. Mary 18 9 16 10 — 53
BRYANT 8 18 14 22 — 62
BELLES (5-20, 1-12) 53
Player fg-fga ft-fta reb fls pts
o-d-t
Khairi 9-14 1-1 0-0 0 4 22
Stafford 3-10 0-0 0-2 2 3 7
McAlister 3-7 1-3 2-5 7 1 7
Sprick 4-10 2-4 1-8 9 4 11
Hugen 1-1 0-0 0-5 5 0 2
Stuff 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2 0
Sloan 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Hudson 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Kauffman 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Kleine 0-0 0-0 0-1 1 0 0
Iriana 2-5 0-0 2-2 4 1 4
Team 0-1 1
Totals 22-49 4-8 5-24 29 16 53
LADY HORNETS (18-8, 5-8) 62
Player fg-fga ft-fta reb fls pts
o-d-t
Davis 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Hogancamp 2-4 1-2 1-0 1 0 6
Stearns 1-3 0-0 2-7 9 1 2
Blundell 1-7 2-3 3-4 7 1 4
Abernathy 2-12 2-2 0-2 2 3 8
Adams 7-12 10-10 3-1 4 1 24
Moore 2-9 3-4 1-3 4 4 8
Davidson 4-5 2-2 1-4 5 1 10
Team 0-2 2
Totals 19-52 20-23 11-23 34 12 62
Three-point field goals: Bryant 4-15 (Abernathy 2-10, Hogancamp 1-2, Moore 1-2, Stearns 0-1), Mount St. Mary 5-12 (Khairi 3-4, Stafford 1-5, Sprick 1-2, Iriana 0-1). Turnovers: Bryant 14, Mount St. Mary 20.
