PEARCY -- Armed with a full stable of scoring threats, the offensive potential of the Lake Hamilton Lady Wolves was on full display against visiting Lakeside Tuesday night.
The Lady Wolves buried nine 3-pointers and had three scorers in double-figures in a 62-50 win at Lake Hamilton Wolf Arena.
Avenging a 41-40 loss on Dec. 15 at Lakeside Athletic Complex, Lake Hamilton improved to 11-11 overall and 6-5 in the 5A/6A-6 blended conference with its fourth win in the last five games. Lakeside dropped to 15-6 overall and 7-3 in conference.
"I just feel like it was our communication and our preparation," Lake Hamilton coach Blake Condley said. "We really talked the last couple days about what we want to do, especially on defense. They've got a handful of scorers, and it's a tough task to try and guard them, but I felt like the girls were really communicating with each other about what was going on."
After building an early 13-8 lead in the first quarter as senior guard Taylor Wells connected on three shots from behind the arc, the Lady Wolves were faced with adversity when seniors Grace Tedder and Hannah Walker were forced to the bench with three fouls.
The rest of the cast picked up the slack, and Lake Hamilton maintained a 15-11 advantage at the end of the opening period.
"It was just the next man up at that point," said Condley. "I'm really proud of our girls that come off the bench. They prepare and get themselves ready just like the five girls that are starting. We really try to talk about no one person being more important than the other, and I feel like the girls really own that."
As Lakeside struggled to find its groove offensively, the Lady Wolves opened the second quarter with an 8-2 run to stretch their lead to 22-13.
Lakeside's Thea Rice and Belle Neilson later combined for nine points, but Jenny Peake scored Lake Hamilton's last nine points to give the Lady Wolves a 34-25 lead at the half.
"For whatever reason, we're just not shooting the ball well right now," Lakeside coach Chris Brock said. "I honestly thought we got a lot of really good looks in the first half that we usually knock down. I didn't think it was anything different than what we've seen, but we're just not shooting the ball well as a group. There are times when that happens, and we've got to get ourselves out of it."
Wells opened the third quarter with two more shots from behind the arc, and Lake Hamilton pushed its lead to 42-27 early in the second half.
Lakeside's Ashton Patrick later buried a 3-pointer to trim the gap to 42-33 before Tedder countered with a 3-pointer of her own to give the Lady Wolves a 45-33 lead entering the fourth quarter.
Two straight 3-pointers from Tedder sparked a 9-2 run to give Lake Hamilton a commanding 54-35 lead early in the final period. The Lady Rams bounced back with 13 combined points from Patrick, sophomore Katherine Calandro and junior Lindsey Davis, but the Lady Wolves kept them at bay on the strength of their free throw shooting.
Lake Hamilton converted on eight of its last 12 attempts from the foul line in the final minutes to keep Lakeside from pulling within single digits.
Peake paced the Lady Wolves with 17 points, and Wells finished with 15 points on five shots from behind the arc. Tedder scored 11 points, while senior Kit Adderholt added eight points for Lake Hamilton.
"Tonight was more of a complete game that we've been talking about all season, but we've just had trouble putting it together," said Condley. "We hope we're about to hit this stretch to close out the season where we're going to be playing at our best. That's what we've talked about all year."
Patrick led all scorers with 20 points for the Lady Rams, and Neilson had 13 points. Both teams are on the road Friday night, Lakeside at El Dorado (9-11, 6-6) and Lake Hamilton at Magnolia (4-9, 2-8).
"I think we've got to get more confident with what we're doing and we've got to go back to work defensively," Brock said. "There are going to be nights where you don't shoot as good as others, and we've got to be able to get stops when we need to."
Sports on 02/01/2018