PEARCY -- The Hot Springs Lady Trojans have become quite familar with Little Rock Hall this season.
For the third time in 11 games, the Lady Trojans stifled the Lady Warriors defensively, winning 53-33 in the first round of the Kameron Hale Invitational on Wednesday at Wolf Arena.
"The intensity wasn't really there early on; trying to get them up to play a team for a third time this early in the season isn't an easy thing to do," Hot Springs coach Josh Smith said. "They play hard and do a lot of good things, so we feel good about being able to knock them off again like we did today."
Hot Springs held a slim 15-12 advantage after the first quarter, led by KeKe Hunter with 10 points, but ramped up its defense in the second period.
The Lady Trojans limited Hall to just five points in both the second and third quarters, pushing their lead to 36-22 entering the fourth.
"Yesterday was our first day back after the Christmas break and I expected it to be a little sloppy early," said Smith. "That's kind of part of it. We used today to get our feet back under us and beginning in that second quarter, we really started to play defense like we're supposed to and it let us make a run."
Held scoreless in the second quarter, Hunter bounced back with nine points in the third and six in the fourth to finish with a game-high 25.
"KeKe stepped up big for us there in the second half," Smith said. "She wasn't as aggresive in the second quarter, but after the break she really started attacking and was able to get some easy buckets down low."
Chelsie Luckett and Allexias Adams each connected on a three-pointer for the Lady Warriors in the fourth quarter, but the deficit was too much to overcome. Adams led Hall with 11 points and Alaysia Kelly finished with 10.
While Hunter and Ariana Guinn (11 points) filled up the stat sheet for Hot Springs, the most encouraging performance for Smith was that of junior guard Imani Honey.
After missing the last three games, Honey played sparingly for the Lady Trojans and notched four points.
"Being able to get Imani a little bit of playing time was big," said Smith. "We hit a spurt when she was in the game in the third quarter and she played really well in her first game back."
The Lady Trojans (9-2) will face De Queen or Pine Bluff in the second round of the tournament at 7 p.m. today with the winner clinching a berth in Friday's championship.
"The big thing we need to focus on is just being able to finish a game," Smith said. "We've had moments all year where we played really well in stretches, but we just kind of lose our focus there for a little while. My focus for them the rest of the year is to get them where we finish people when we're supposed to."
Sports on 12/29/2016