With edges in ballhandling, quickness HVA girls improve to 2-0, win at Halls
HALLS — Hardin Valley Academy’s girls’ basketball team improved to 2-0 on the road with a 47-32 win over Halls Friday night, Nov. 17
Except for the first three minutes of the third quarter, the Lady Hawks, who had an advantage in ball-handling and quickness, were in control.
“Gritty win down the stretch,” HVA head coach Jennifer Galloway said. “We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well. I felt like we did a good job of taking care of the ball at the end of the game.”
By halftime, it looked like the game was well in hand. HVA jumped to a 5-0 opening lead en route to a 12-4 advantage after one. Up 14-7 early in the second, the Lady Hawks then went on a 12-3 run to lead 26-10. The half ended 26-12.
But the Lady Red Devils weren’t done. They opened the third quarter scoring 10 straight points, and suddenly HVA’s lead was only 26-22. Seven of the points came from Megan Biliter.
“I called a timeout so I was a little frustrated with our performance (at that point),” Galloway said. “But we cleaned up what we needed to, then we went on a run.”
The Lady Hawks answered with eight straight over slightly more than three minutes to build the lead back to 12, 36-24. Six of the eight came from junior point guard Kyndra West. The third quarter ended with HVA leading 36-27.
“I wasn’t too worried (about Halls’s run),” West said. “We just had to work together to finish it off.”
Five straight to open the fourth made it 41-27 and put the game on ice. “We got some big stops, went on some runs when we needed to,” Galloway said. “We had good control of the boards.”
The Lady Hawks were led in scoring by junior guard Kamryn Butcher with 13. Kamiyah Love added 11, mostly in the paint where she was hard to stop. Foul trouble limited her playing time. “She did a great job inside; it was difficult for them to stop her,” Galloway said about her junior post.
West scored nine, hauled in eight eight boards and was everywhere on the court. HVA was led in rebounds by junior Ava Claire Wrather (12).
