Lakeside junior girls put away Hot Springs

Lakeside’s junior high girls’ basketball team closed the regular season Monday with a 5221 victory over Hot Springs at the Lakeside Athletic Complex.

The junior Lady Rams led, 12-5, at the end of the first quarter and carried a 28-9 lead into halftime.

“Hats off to Lakeside,” said Hot Springs head coach Josh Smith. “They were prepared and had a great game plan for us.”

Catriona Morcan set the tone for the second half as she sank a shot early in the third quarter. Kennedy Brock had a trey of her own with two minutes left on the clock and then sank one from the free throw line to put Lakeside ahead, 38-12.

Morcan again found the basket with a layup at the 1:38 mark. Kristin Marlar quickly added a trey to up the score, 40-15. Brock buried another shot from 3-point range with 14 seconds left in the third as Lakeside closed out the quarter with a 43-15 advantage.

“As we went down, we were getting everybody in and nearly everybody scored so that’s nice,” said Lakeside head coach Gary Don Smith. “It was a good win.”

“In the first quarter, we were trying to take it in to (Mady) Davenport and she probably scored eight or 10 points in there,” Smith added. “So, it’s good when, as a team, we’re working it like that.”

Davenport had nine points, while Brock and Madeline Goodson each had seven points. Morcan had five points and four rebounds, while Ronnie Formby added four points, three assists, three rebounds and a pair of steals.

The conference tournament will begin at Hot Springs on Saturday.

* Lakeside’s eighth-grade girls’ team cruised to a 30-9 victory. The hosts outscored Hot Springs, 23-2, over the final three quarters.

The teams were tied, 7-7, after the opening quarter, but neither team scored in the second. The junior Lady Rams had a 21-9 lead after the third quarter.

“I thought we did a good job moving the ball around on offense and getting the shots we wanted,” Gary Don Smith said.

“The junior girls are playing hard for us,” Josh Smith said. “It just wasn’t our night.

“We’ll go back to work and prepare for Thursday. Looking forward to the conference tourney that we’re hosting and, hopefully, we can make some noise in it.”

Brock paced Lakeside with 15 points and Riley Orr finished with 10 points, six rebounds and five steals. Emylee Bittinger had five steals and five assists. Natieya Pettus added four steals.

“The girls played good. We had some mistakes I fussed about early in the game, but the girls really played good,” said Garydon Smith. “Both teams, the eighth and ninth, all played well.”