PEARCY -- The Lake Hamilton Lady Wolves hosted Hot Springs Friday for homecoming.
Lake Hamilton took the two-game conference series, beating the Trojans 51-39 in the second matchup.
"Lake Hamilton was on us defensively the whole night," Hot Springs head coach Josh Smith said. "We really struggled to run an offense tonight and it showed. We have to understand that adversity happens and we have to play through it."
Lake Hamilton (10-13, 7-4 5A-South) is coming off a 46-35 loss at Texarkana.
"It was a good win," Lake Hamilton head coach Blake Condley said. "We have been talking since Texarkana that we just felt we did not bring the energy and intensity that we needed to. I was really proud of the girls. They practiced well this week and had good attitudes. They brought it to the floor tonight. I am proud of them for taking care of the things that we talked about in practice that we needed to do to win this game."
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Lake Hamilton junior guard Brooklyn Braughton scored 17 points and was a defensive force against the Trojans (5-15, 2-8).
"Brooklyn is our motor," Condley said. "She has one speed and that is hard. There are times where we are trying to get her to slow down to be able to see some things, but I never have to worry about what kind of effort she is going to bring."
Lake Hamilton ran a triple post offense trying to take advantage of the size advantage over Hot Springs.
The Lady Wolves scored seven 3-pointers as a team in their homecoming victory.
As the buzzer sounded for the first period, 6-foot sophomore Beth Ann Mullenix drained a shot from trey to make it a 16-12 Trojan lead.
"Beth Ann played really well in the first half," Smith said. "She made some really tough shots early on. She tried to take some of those tough shots late that did not go in. She lost a little bit of her confidence in the second half. I am proud of her for knocking down shots for sure."
Mullenix might be tall, but she is a distance shooter. She had 11 points for the Lady Trojans, sinking two 3-point shots in the first half.
"We have had spurts where good things have happened," Smith said. "We just have not been able to do it for a full game yet to really see against quality opponents. Like coach Condley does for them, he does a great job defensively. He gets after us and schemes for us. He knows what is coming, and they do those things. We are struggling to adjust on the fly."
With 4:38 left to play in the second period, Braughton drained a long 3-point shot from well beyond the arc to take a 21-20 lead.
"When we switched to play some man-to-man defense tonight we put Braughton on the ball," Condley said. "She just starts getting a little more amped up, and she just loves it. She feeds off the defensive end of the floor."
Hot Springs ran the 1-3-1 defense to keep the ball out of the paint.
Praylin Jones is a junior for the Lady Trojans, and she scored 11 points and was clutch from the free throw line.
Back and forth the ladies went, and the halftime score was 26-22.
Lake Hamilton seniors Paris Macon and Nancy Coffman, and junior Laney Hunter, all made the homecoming court
"I would say it is a tie between my offense and defense skills," Macon said. "It just depends on the situation. Sometimes I am needed more in the defensive role and other times I need to be more in the offense to get it rolling."
Hot Springs' offense was motion style with four guards, and the Lady Trojans worked the ball inside to the single post.
Junior Kyabra Lomax scored eight points against the Lady Wolves and led the Hot Springs defense on the floor.
Lake Hamilton ran the 1-3-1 zone defense and full-court press against the Trojans.
With 3:38 to play in the third period, Lomax drove past two defenders and hit a 15-foot jumper, making the score 30-27 in favor of Lake Hamilton.
"When Kyabra's motor runs she does a lot of good things for us," Smith said. "She competed tonight for the whole game. She played four quarters for us. I do not think she scored as good as she has been doing. She averages 12 points per game. They did a good job defensively on her."
Macon had a career-high 20 points for the Lady Wolves.
"Yes, I am so excited," Macon said. "The game was really good. Overall, as a team we changed our mentality from the Texarkana game to now. That just made a big difference by working on all the things in practice. I made four 3-pointers."
Condly said he loves Macon's energy.
"She is one of those kids where she always comes to practice with a smile on her face," he said. "When she is getting ready for the games she always has a bounce in her step. You just love to see a kid like that have some success. With the work she is putting in, it showed up."
With 4:43 left to play in the fourth period, Macon caught the outlet pass from Braughton and scored the jump shot. The Lady Wolves led 47-30.
"We slowed Hot Springs down a lot," Macon said. "We made sure we were taking on the next person and that slows them down a lot. Once they stop, then it is dead ball defense and we are all up on them and they cannot do anything."
Condley saw Macon's ability in practice.
"We have seen flashes of Macon in practice and we have known that it was there, but just getting her comfortable enough to bring it to the games," he said. "Just so proud of her and her being able to see that work come to fruition tonight."
The Lady Trojans only have seven players.
"I just try to get them to understand that no matter whether you have seven or 14, there are only five on the court at one time," Smith said. "When you play together and when you come together as a team good things can happen."
It was the Macon and Braughton show against the Trojans with both ladies combining to score 37 of the Lady Wolves' points.
"We knew we would be playing against the 1-3-1 that Hot Springs runs," Condley said. "We wanted to see if we could take advantage of getting the girls around the basket to try to get some easy buckets."