PEARCY -- Hot Springs struggled early with turnovers, and Star City found a way to turn them into points as the Lady Bulldogs rolled to a 53-33 win over the Lady Trojans Friday in the Kameron Hale Invitational tournament at Lake Hamilton's Wolf Arena.
The Lady Trojans (3-6) turned the ball over 14 times in the first half as Star City (12-2) rolled to a 22-7 halftime lead.
Hot Springs kicked off the second half strong with a 5-0 run to pull within 22-12 with just 1:07 off the clock. Star City came back with a three-point play by Bre'anna Grayson to pull out to 25-12.
Jaylia Reed hit a trey with 4:17 to go in the third to pull within 27-15 off an assist from KaLariya McDaniel, but Janiya Johnson responded with a 3-pointer of her own at the 2:18 mark to make it 30-15. Star City then closed out the period on an 8-2 run to make it 38-17 with eight minutes to go.
Star City put up four points early in the fourth quarter before Kiah Beauford fed Bre Collins inside for a layup with 1:11 off the clock. Another Collins layup, this time on a pass from Nadiya Valrie, pulled the Lady Trojans within 44-21 with 5:27 remaining.
"That's what she's got to do," said Hot Springs head coach Josh Smith. "Once she realizes she has to stand tall and keep those arms up. Her problem is she stands tall at first, and then those arms come down.
"When those arms come down, she's going to get the foul every time. The kids don't understand why it's a foul. It's obvious why it's a foul, but it's just part of it."
The two teams traded baskets for much of the remainder of the period as the Lady Bulldogs kept Hot Springs from getting enough momentum to get close enough to take a lead.
"I thought if we could pressure and make it a full-court game and get some fast-breaks and steals, we would be in good shape," said Star City head coach Becky Brown, noting that her team's defense has made a big difference.
"I think the last two nights we've started out better than we have in the other games, and it's because of our defense, our pressure defense. We're getting after it on defense, and that gives us a good start."
Hot Springs got on the board first with Reed putting up a shot for two with 29 seconds off the clock, but Star City went on an 11-0 run to close out the period on top.
"We've got to get the girls to understand that each game is different," Smith said. "Each game is going to be called different. We've got to learn to adjust to it."
Smith said that his team struggled to overcome several players getting in foul trouble early, especially with the pressure that Star City brought on defense.
"They didn't understand how to adjust to how the game was being played," he said. "Star City is great at what they do. They're going to come with pressure. We knew it was coming. We just didn't execute, and we let the speed of it affect us."
The Lady Trojans fell into a 9:46 scoring drought, with the Lady Bulldogs pulling to a 17-2 lead before McDaniel hit a pair of free throws with 5:45 remaining in the half. McDaniel then hit a trey at the 4:13 mark to pull within 17-12, but that was the last the team would score before halftime.
"We didn't get many opportunities, and that's because of them," Smith said. "When we got the opportunities, we did well. We fed Bre the ball inside when we had the chance to. That's what we were wanting to do in the first half with her, but she picked up two quick ones and didn't get to do that.
"It was Jaiden's first action in three or four weeks, and I played her more than I wanted to play her. We've still got Jurnee (Hicks)out. We're still trying to figure each other out this far into the season. It's learning. Now, we see something that we've got to go fix."
Collins paced the Lady Trojans with 11 points, six rebounds and three blocked shots. Reed added 10 with one rebound and one assist, and McDaniel had seven points with two steals, a rebound and an assist. Keindia Nevels had four rebounds.
Johnson led all scorers with 28 points, and Anna Wynn added 15 points.
"She's been really consistent throughout the whole first part of the season," Brown said of Johnson. "She's playing well right now. She's playing well on both ends of the court and in-between. That's what she's got to do. We're still missing some easy baskets and some free throws, and we're making it a little harder on ourselves than we should."
Hot Springs will face the loser of the late Lake Hamilton-Little Rock Hall game today at 1 p.m. Star City will face the winner of the game at 6:30 p.m. in the championship game.
Sports on 12/29/2018