PEARCY -- Cross-town rivalry triggered dynamic outbursts of competitiveness Tuesday night as Lake Hamilton's overwhelming defensive edge crippled the Lady Rams' offense in a 47-24 rout at Wolf Arena.
Leading by 16 points at the end of the third, the Lady Wolves (10-5, 2-0 5A South) were relentless on offense as junior Aspen Thornton quickly landed a pair of free throws early in the fourth to set the tone for another dynamic play as the junior weapon nabbed a grab-and-go for a field goal after Lakeside junior Maddie Trusty's two free throws, sealing a 38-22 Lake Hamilton lead with 5:34 left in the final period.
After stretching their lead out to 46-24 with less than 60 seconds left in the game, the Lady Wolves drew another foul for a free throw, setting the final margin.
"I really tried to think ahead when planning for this year," Lake Hamilton girls head coach Blake Condley said. "I really feel like what we've done up to this point in terms of our schedule and who we've played, I think has really done a good job of preparing us to get ready to play these games. ... I'm really proud of the girls this week. ... Whenever I talked to them about studying the scouting report and knowing what we're trying to do in terms of our gameplan, they were really studying it; they wanted to do well and I thought this was, like I said, as good as the girls on the court and the girls on the bench, and us as a team, for 32 minutes, everyone being really locked in tonight, and I was really proud of the girls' effort for that."
Junior Tia Mullenix launched a key 3-pointer just moments into the game with Thornton on the assist, and after sophomore Ginny Higginbotham's 2-point jumper, Lake Hamilton jumped out to an early 5-0 edge that later stretched out to a 10-0 lead behind a trey by junior Hayleigh Wyrick and layup by sophomore Audri Winfrey.
Lakeside (12-2, 0-1) failed to respond until the four-minute mark when junior point guard Erika Bittinger lifted one in from inside the post, putting the Lady Rams on the board before Trusty buried one from behind the arc. Thorton answered with another steal for a layup, and after sealing the 3-point play with a minute left, the Lady Wolves secured a 15-5 lead going into the second quarter.
"[I'm] still super proud of our girls; I thought we played really hard the entire game," said Lakeside girls head coach Chris Brock. "Obviously they did a great job defensively; I thought they played really well. We didn't shoot the ball the way we're capable, but they had a lot to do with that. I think we've just got to take advantage of what we do well offensively, and we didn't do that tonight, but defensively and as far as playing as hard as we could the entire game, I was really proud of how hard we played."
Mullenix drained another 3 just moments into the second, and Higginbotham drained two more for a 24-5 lead with 4:39 left in the first half.
Lakeside failed to counter its opponent's 9-0 run until sophomore Sarah Porter found Bittinger on the outside for a trey, trimming the gap down to 24-8 before Sarah Porter's two free throws combined with sister senior Chloe Porter's last-minute layup set the halftime spread at 26-12 in Lake Hamilton's favor after Thornton's quick 2-point bucket.
"Our girls were really locked in defensively, and I thought this has been the closest to a 32-minute game that we've played without having lapses [where] we feel like we're not playing hard," said Condley. "Now, we had some breakdowns because we're not going to play perfect. That's what I tell the girls, but I think you can overcome some of those breakdowns just with your effort and playing really hard, and not once tonight in the 32 minutes did I ever question if we were trying to play hard and trying to do the things that we had really talked about on the defensive end."
"I though everybody played really hard; I thought Erika [Bittinger] did a great job at point," Brock noted. "We got into our stuff ... They were doing a really good job defensively with what they were doing, but I thought Erika played really, really well the entire game and got us opportunities we just didn't capitalize on enough."
The visitors gave up 6 straight points to start off the third period before securing a 5-3 run of their own to cut back the deficit to 35-17 with 1:45 left on the clock, and after a layup by Lakeside sophomore Mady Davenport, Chloe Porter drew a foul on the next play and sank 1 of 2 attempts from the free throw line moments before time expired as the Lady Wolves continued to lead going in the fourth, 36-20.
Thorton paced Lake Hamilton's offensive scoring with 17 points while adding 4 assists, 2 rebounds and 3 steals. Higginbotham finished with 10 points and pulled down 4 rebounds. Mullenix added 6 points, 5 boards, a pair of assists and 1 steal. Winfrey had 6 points, 7 boards and 1 assist, and Wyrick tallied 6 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and a blocked shot.
"We're trying to progress each game and our defense is a little ahead of our offense which it's going to be, and so the system that we try to run, it's hard and it takes a while for the girls to get it, [but] we just keep telling them [to] be patient [and to] keep working on the things that we're working on," Condley added. "We want it to be at its best at the end of the season. We don't want to be playing our best right now; we want to keep getting better, and hopefully if we get into the state tournament, that's when we would like to peak.
"We'd like to be playing well enough in conference because we've got to get to the state tournament first, but then we want to be playing our best when it comes state-tournament time. ... We're trying to get a little bit better at something every time."
For the Lady Rams, Bittinger and Chloe Porter each led with 7 points each while Bittinger added 3 boards and 1 steal, and Porter with 1 grab and an assist. Sophomore Ronni Formby and Trusty led Lakeside's defensive game with 7 boards apiece while Trusty added 5 points, 1 steal and a block, and Formby finished with 2 steals, 1 point and a block. Sarah Porter rounded out the scoring with 2 points while adding 3 rebounds and 3 assists.
"We've got Benton on Friday," added Brock. "I told the girls we're just going to learn from tonight ... and kind of just move on. [We're] just happy that we played a game; it's been so long since we played since it got canceled Friday and didn't get to play, so we're ready to just kind of get in a groove [and] get in a rhythm playing."
Lakeside will host the Lady Panthers on Friday, and the Lady Wolves will travel to J.A. Fair.
Sports on 01/16/2020