By William / www.mcpherson-county-ks.com
LINDSBORG – A first half lead did not hold up on Tuesday as the Smoky Valley girls stumbled in the second half and took a nine-point, 36-27 home court loss to Hillsboro.
The Lady Vikings came into the game ranked #10 in Class 3A and looked the part early as they took a six-point, 10-4 lead by the end of the first quarter before Hillsboro was able to chip away and only trail by two to Smoky Valley at the halftime break.
In the final two quarters, Hillsboro managed to outscore the Lady Vikings 17-6 as they finished out the game as nine-point winners.
“It was a tale of two halves,” explained Lady Viking head coach Jason Drouillard. “We got off to a great start but then seemed to let off the gas pedal. The girls did a good job getting good shots in the first half, but we need to continue working on being strong with the ball and being fundamentally sound. While it wasn’t the result we wanted, we’ll use this as motivation to bounce back on Friday.”
While no team stats were available a key to the game may have come when Lady Viking leader Breanna Priddy ran into foul trouble and had to sit much of the second half or it could have been how the Smoky Valley defense could not stop the top two girls for Hillsboro who combined to score 30 of the teams 36 points.
Only four Lady Vikings scored in the game, with Abby Rose just missing double digits with nine leading the way while Adrian Hazelwood chipped in with seven and Priddy had six despite sitting much of the final quarters.
SCORING = 1 2 3 4 FINAL
Hillsboro 4 15 6 9 36
LADY VIKINGS 10 11 2 4 27
No Team Stats were Available.
SMOKY VALLEY LADY VIKINGS SCORING LEADERS:
Scoring (27 total points) = Abby Rose – 9; Adrian Hazelwood – 7; Breanna Priddy – 6; Keira Mullen – 5.
3-Pointers Made (2) = Rose, Hazelwood – 1.