PEARCY -- Lake Hamilton's freshman girls put things together in their first conference matchup of the season, defeating Cabot North 38-34 Thursday night at Wolf Arena.
Lake Hamilton (9-4, 1-0) jumped out to a 10-3 lead in the first quarter, but the junior Lady Panthers found their rhythm to knot the score at 16-16 by the break.
"I thought Cabot did a great job defensively on us," said Lake Hamilton head coach Maribeth Richards. "They're very well-coached, and (Cabot North head coach) Mary (Emily Nash) does a really, really good job with them. And they basically did a really good job defensively on us. And offensively for us, we missed a lot of easy baskets early on and then tightened up a little bit. But I was proud that we overcame because it could have gone bad quick, and they overcame a lot tonight, and I was really proud of them."
Free throws proved to be the difference in the fourth as Lake Hamilton's Braylee Winfrey sank a pair from the charity stripe to open the final frame. As the junior Lady Panthers continued to play tight, Brooklyn Braughton lifted Lake Hamilton a 28-26 lead at the 4:18 mark.
Cabot North's Molly Ivy knotted the game with a pair of free throws before Sophee Oliver answered with a shot off the glass for the junior Lady Wolves. A trey from Kinley Porter gave Cabot North a 31-30 lead as both teams traded buckets in the final few minutes. Winfrey drew a foul off a fast break, sinking both to put the junior Lady Wolves up 34-33 with 1:39 on the clock.
The play which ultimately iced the game came next when Winfrey stole the ball off the press to set it back up and slowly run out time as Cabot was soon forced to foul. Winfrey and Emma Hughes capped it by hitting from the line down the stretch.
"They were pretty clutch from the free throw line, and we struggled from there," said Nash. "And we still had our bus legs in the first quarter, and the girls adjusted well in the second, so we went into halftime tied. But when it came right down to it, they just hit free throws, and we didn't hit them."
Winfrey got the junior Lady Wolves on the board first with the spin move and drive as Makenzee Clark followed up with a steal and layup. After an inside jumper from Winfrey, Lake Hamilton held a 6-0 lead to start the match.
Ivy began to get hot for Cabot North in the second as she led the junior Lady Panthers on a 10-2 run to ultimately knot the score going into the break.
Cabot North's Ivy Loe sank an inside jumper off a pass from Porter to give the Lady Panthers their first lead of the night, wasting little time in their comeback effort. Gracie Williams then grabbed a steal and faked before banking one in off the glass for a 20-16 lead at the 2:15 mark of the third.
Braughton answered with a bucket seconds later to get the junior Lady Wolves on the board in the second half. Seconds later, Hughes drained a 3-pointer from the right baseline, stealing the ball before passing ahead to Braughton, who drew the foul and tacked on another point from the line.
Trailing 23-20, the junior Lady Panthers answered with a steal by Sara Camplain and transition layup by Loe to pull within 1 going into the final six minutes.
Richards said that her team's rotations were off defensively in the first half.
"In the second quarter, our rotation on defense was completely off," she said. "We did a better job -- when I say I was proud -- we did better in the second half, and we executed our offense a lot better. And that was a big turning point. We were more patient on offense. I think we had fewer turnovers on offense in the first half, so that was a big turning point."
Winfrey led the junior Lady Wolves with 16 points, five rebounds and three steals. Hughes had 9 points, two steals and a rebound, Braughton had 6 points with a pair of rebounds and a pair of steals, Oliver tallied 4 points, three rebounds, two blocks and a pair of steals and Clark finished with 2 points and three steals.
Ivy had 11 points, four rebounds and two steals to lead the junior Lady Panthers. Loe had 7 points, one rebound and an assist, Porter had 5 points, three rebounds, an assist and a steal, Williams and Camplain each had 4 points with Camplain adding a couple of rebounds, a steal and an assist and Williams adding three steals. Hall rounded out the scoring with 3 points, three steals, a pair of rebounds and an assist.
• After getting behind early, the eighth-grade Lady Wolves were never able to catch up with Cabot North, falling 23-16.
Lake Hamilton put up just 4 points in the first half as the eighth-grade Lady Panthers stretched a 12-2 lead to an 18-4 edge by halftime.
The eighth-grade Lady Wolves went on a 7-0 run to start the third quarter, holding Cabot North scoreless until the final 20 seconds of the quarter, but the visiting team held on for a 20-12 lead going into the final minutes of the game.
Alyssa Duncan and Kenya Bean each put up 7 points for the Lady Panthers with Duncan adding three rebounds and a pair of steals and Bean adding three rebounds and one steal. Kennedy Churchill and Macy Towner had 4 points apiece with Churchill adding two steals and a rebound and Towner tallying three rebounds. Lilly Boles finished with 1 point, a steal and a rebound, Kenzie Pruett had three rebounds and a pair of steals and Lorelei Davis had a steal.
Ava Joiner had 6 points, five steals, three rebounds and two assist for the Lady Wolves. Hannah Pitts had 5 points, five rebounds and one steal, Remy Wozniak had 3 points, seven rebounds and two blocks, Madi Page had 2 points and two rebounds and Christina Porter had two assists and one steal.