The tournament host Lady Cats dominated Hull-Daisetta 49-6 before a packed gymnasium of students in a Friday matinee.
A smothering Big Sandy defense led to a 24-2 halftime lead. The Lady Wildcats outhustled Hull-Daisetta to loose balls and rebounds all half.
The Bobcats didn’t see much more success on the offensive end in the second half, held to just four more points.
“I thought we played really well defensively,” Big Sandy coach Ryan Alec said. “I think that was probably the big difference in the game. We talked to them before the game about bringing energy and having a lot of intensity. We’re playing two games today and we have seven kids. We have to find some way to get ourselves energized. Everybody has to be doing their part and picking each other up. We try to take pride in our defense, and I thought we did a good job of that.”
Big Sandy took away Lady Bobcat ball handler strengths by making them use their left hand.
On offense, Amberlee Smith led with 13 points, Kaiyah Abbey had a dozen, and Braely Fischer had 11.
“Offensively, I thought we could have done some better things to execute,” Alec said. “We weren’t seeing a lot of our cuts and a lot of people that were open. In the second half, we talked about it and made a few adjustments and did a much better job executing our offense.”
A hot shooting team from Dallardsville was too much for Hardin Friday, doubling up the Hornets 64-32 on the second day of their tournament.
Big Sandy raced out to a 12-2 start by hitting four shots from beyond the arc.
Former Coldspring and Corrigan-Camden coach Greg Devers now leads the Hornets, who had only been through a few practices with a long football season. Though Big Sandy was outsized, they were able to execute well on offense in the first half, scoring 21 in each of the first two quarters. Holding Hardin to just 15 at the half, the contest was firmly under the home team’s control.
To start the tournament on Friday, Big Sandy coach Dalton Flowers was able to defeat his older brother’s team, who leads Neches, which took the place of an absent Union Hill.
“Last night, we played Neches and they filled in for us. We actually play them tonight in a real game,” Flowers said. “We shot the lights out, which was great, because Tuesday coming back from break, we didn’t. We only scored 35 total points and held Lumberton to 24. I think we hit 10 three-pointers (versus Neches) and one of our kids hit six. That bled over into today; we shot well in the first half today against Hardin.”
Jamesley Flowers led the ‘Cats with 24 points and Colt Bullock had 23 with five 3-pointers.
“I really didn’t know what to expect, because it is a day game and we went to school,” Flowers said. “One of my seniors is sick right now and he’s toughed it through. We didn’t play as good in the second half, but we lit up the first half. Hardin is big, a lot bigger than we are, so I was nervous. We played well in front of the home crowd, so that was great. The student body was here, and a lot of the teachers brought their kids over, which was fun.”
Hosting a tournament for the first time in several years, the Livingston Lions defeated Cleveland 75-50 Friday night in Lion Gym.
Livingston built a comfortable lead in the opening period, but Cleveland was able to cut it in half with some full-court pressure.
The Indians trailed by just five at the end of the first quarter. Up 24-23 near the end of the second quarter, Livingston rolled off eight unanswered points to take a nine-point halftime lead.
Excellent passing leading to assists allowed the Lions a more comfortable margin in the second half. Both Garners — T.J. and Ziekus — were credited with many. The Lions remained tough on half-court defense.
“We had to get going a little bit and get that motor running in the second half,” Lion coach Sean Berry said. “I talked to them last night about getting everybody involved and teamwork and finding the hot hand. I think tonight, Ziekus probably had 10-plus assists because he knew they were going to start closing in on him. He dished the ball really well.”
The coach also mentioned T.J. Garner and Cruz Julian as Lions who excelled passing the basketball.
T.J. Garner led the home Lions with 24 points, Julian scored 19, and Ziekus Garner had a dozen.
“I didn’t get my bigs in as much as I wanted to, but (Cleveland was) small and fast, and it would have been pointless to wear my bigs out like that,” Berry said. “We’re going to have to be good in the half court, because there’s going to be a lot of teams that try to slow it down on us.”
In a loss versus Lake Creek, the coach said Livingston had only seven assists for the game. He challenged the team to play unselfish basketball, and the result was a team that moved the ball well for the win.
