East Hamilton girls’ basketball coach Derek Morris has stressed to his team the need to get a quality win to establish itself as a program on the rise.
Even if it might have been a shaky road to the finish, the Lady Hurricanes took a step toward that Friday night.
A huge third quarter enabled them to defeat Tyner 61-48 at East Hamilton. That, coupled with Brainerd’s defeat of Howard, gave the Lady Hurricanes sole possession of first place in District 6-AA.
Post Alexis Adams finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds to lead East Hamilton (9-6, 6-0), which outscored the Lady Rams 26-9 in the decisive period. That came a quarter after Tyner had forced seven steals and held East Hamilton to four points in taking a 22-20 lead into halftime.
“We just didn’t match their intensity in the second half,” Tyner coach Terri Parks said. “We played hard in the first half and we’re capable of doing that all game, but we didn’t do it in the second.”
East Hamilton, which outrebounded Tyner 35-24, took advantage of its height early with Adams and Jaiton Wells, but foul trouble caused both to miss time, and Adams fouled out in the third period. Morris also got solid minutes from Kennedy Fager, who spelled Wells and had seven points and seven rebounds.
“We’ve really worked on that,” Morris said. “We’ve put an emphasis on getting the ball inside and have worked with the post players about fighting for position. Now they’re seeing the hard work pay off.”
Despite their height, the Lady Hurricanes’ pressure defense is how they took over the game in the third quarter. Tiffany Lewis, Jessica Caudle and Brynn Moon combined for six steals in the period as the Lady Rams guards — who had been instrumental in the first-half success — started to get careless with the ball.
“I think we started to show some maturity,” Morris said. “Our defense gave us opportunities in transition, and therefore we were able to get into a rhythm offensively.”
Tyner (5-5, 3-3) made a run in the fourth quarter, cutting the margin to 54-45 on a score inside by Treketta Bonds, but was never able to get any closer.
Alexxus Sturkey had 12 points to lead the Lady Rams.
“We had our guards in one half and our posts show up in the other,” Parks said. “We can’t have either-or. It has to be a team effort.
“Right now, I don’t think we play as a team well. Everybody has to step up to play. We’re close to being a great team, but we have to be on the same page on the same day.”
Follow Gene Henley on Twitter by following this link.