Hawks stumble against Karns rival
The Hawks have hovered around mediocrity through their first 12 games, and things didn’t go well early last week. Despite getting off to a fast start, they dropped a 76-60 non-district loss to rival Karns on Tuesday, Dec. 16, at home.
“We’re young and we’re not thick enough, and a lot of that is because of our youth,” HVA coach Andy Arendt said. “But we’ve got to grow up sometime.”
The Hawks (6-6) were coming off a big win over Kingston Saturday, Dec. 13, and early on looked poised to build
off that victory. Hardin Valley opened a 19-13 lead against the Beavers by the end of the first quarter.
After the early surge, things slowly unraveled for the Hawks. One of Hardin Valley’s leading scorers, Kristian Oliver, was held scoreless while plagued by foul trouble throughout the night. He wasn’t the only Hawk saddled with fouls, as Jax Sparks and Kymani Smith also dealt with foul trouble.
“We can’t have games where Kristian Oliver doesn’t score, and the reason we got into foul trouble is because we keep reaching with our hands,” Arendt said.
Further hindering the Hawks was an ineffective offense. Instead of attacking the basket, they frequently settled for long-range shots.
“Our shot selection was terrible at times, and I think we settled for 3s,” Arendt said. “We didn’t drive, and when we did drive, they collapsed and we kicked the ball back out and took a bad shot.
“We settled, and that was the first thing I told our guys. A lot of that is because of our youth, and a lot of it is on me.”
The struggles continued in the second quarter as Karns outscored the Hawks 17-9 in the period. Hardin Valley remained within striking distance, trailing 30-28 at halftime.
From there, the Beavers continued to build their lead, extending it to 50-43 by the end of the third quarter.
Over the final eight minutes, Karns never relinquished control, although the Hawks cut the deficit to 55-50 on a basket by Hunter Ratcliff with 4:49 remaining.
Karns then went on a decisive run, all but sealing the victory when Remy Moore hit a 3-pointer to make it 66-54 with 2:57 left.
The Hawks made one final push, scoring six straight points to close within 68-60 when Smith scored with just over two minutes remaining. Those proved to be Hardin Valley’s final points, as Karns closed the game with the final eight points.
Jaxon Schwartz sparked the late surge for the Beavers, scoring eight points in the fourth quarter.
“Jaxon had a big second half, and he had a couple of big blocks,” Karns coach Lee Henson said. “We took a little bit of a gut punch, but we made some adjustments to the way they were guarding us.
“We wanted to make them play defense, and we were able to get them into foul trouble. We were keying on Oliver because we knew he could shoot it.”
Karns (5-5) placed four players in double figures. William Summey led the Beavers with 20 points, while Owen Miller scored 15. Schwartz added 14, and Simon Tutu finished with 12.
Smith led the Hawks with 18 points. Colin Dyrness scored 13, and Sparks finished with 12.
