Surge in second half lifts Falcons
Seventh straight win builds 2-game cushion in 29-6A
Stevens erased a five-point halftime deficit and avenged its lone district loss in rallying past Holmes 51-36 Wednesday night at Harlan District Gym.
The No. 8 Falcons improved to 12-4 overall and 8-1 in District 29-6A, two games in front of second-place Harlan (5-2).
Senior forward Semaj Adams came off the bench and tallied a game-high 19 points and 16 rebounds.
Stevens outscored Holmes 36-16 in the second half after trailing 20-15.
“I’m proud of the way we came back out of halftime, being down and shots aren’t falling,” Stevens coach Kathleen Moroney said. “We had a freshman come into the game and hit a big 3 for us. We did a good job down the stretch of making good decisions when it got tight.”
Moroney was alluding to
freshman Mya Guzman, who knocked in a 3pointer at the five-minute mark of the third quarter that pulled the Falcons to within 21-18. From there, Stevens tied it at 23 on an Adams layup. The Falcons took the lead for good when Adams sank a free throw to complete a 3-point play that made it 29-27 with 0:51 left in the third.
Stevens carried a 31-28 lead into the fourth quarter. Holmes closed it to 35-34 on a layup from Amethyst Gutierrez with 4:34 left, but the Falcons answered with a 10-0 run to put it away.
“We got our composure together a little bit,” Moroney said. “Just getting off to a slow start and them coming out early and hitting shots made it hard. So, we had to counter that momentum with composure. It took us a minute to figure out how to do that and, once we did, it was OK.”
After Stevens took a 6-0 lead, Holmes responded with an 18-2 run, highlighted by three 3-pointers from Amaris Hubbard. Her third trey put the Huskies ahead 18-8 with 5:13 in the second quarter.
Holmes scored just one field goal the rest of the half as Stevens pulled to within 20-15 at intermission.
Holmes (7-8, 4-4) handed Stevens its only district defeat, 41-40 on Dec. 4. Since then, Stevens has won seven in a row. The Falcons had won their previous seven games by an average of 21.3 points.
“I think it was kind of mental thing for us,” Moroney said. “(Holmes) is a really tough team, and they’ve got a lot of really solid players. Those kids just play hard every night, and you just never know what’s going to happen, truly, when you play them. We lost a close one to them in the first round (of 29-6A play), so it feels good for us to get that win in the second round.”
Holmes was led by Gutierrez’s 10-point effort.