Tuckerman quick-steps past FL
FOUNTAIN LAKE — After a very close first two quarters of play, Tuckerman took control of the game as the Lady Bulldogs took a 52-37 win over Fountain Lake at Sammy Lambert Court at Irvin J. Bass Gymnasium Monday night.
With the Lady Cobras (6-7, 0-2 4A-7) leading
21-20 with 5 seconds left in the first half, Lady Bulldogs sophomore Ansley Dawson went to the line and sank two free throws. On the ensuing inbounds pass, junior Kenadi Gardner stole the ball and hit the shot to give Tuckerman (11-1, 2-0
2A-2) a 4-point lead at the break along with the game’s momentum.
“We did a really good job early on of keeping the tempo at our speed,” said Fountain Lake head coach Chris Mungle. “We hit a few shots early. We didn’t have many live-ball turnovers, so they didn’t get any of them easy buckets. Right there at halftime, you know, we had the lead with about a minute left. We turned it over, and they got an and-one right there before halftime, and they kind of got the momentum.”
The Lady Cobras came out in the third with sophomore point guard Kara Martin finding Karlie Craver on the cut to the basket for the score. Lady Bulldogs junior Shanley Williams sank a 3-pointer in response, followed next time down floor by the drive and scoop shot from Dawson to put Tuckerman up 30-23 with 2:05 off the clock.
Martin once again found Craver in transition to beat the press and cut the lead to 5 before the Lady Bulldogs closed out the quarter on a 10-0 run as Gardner stole the ball, passing ahead to Williams for a buzzer-beater and a 41-26 lead going into the final frame.
Fountain Lake hit a 7-0 spurt to start the fourth led off by senior Presley Hamric hitting in transition and capped by Craver nailing a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 8. The Lady Bulldogs’ speed proved too much for the Lady Cobras to handle as Williams stole the ball and went coast-to-coast for the bucket, a scene that played out several times with different players.
“We win and lose by our quickness — by our athleticism,” said Tuckerman head Chad Soden. “You know, we’re not the biggest team in the world, but we’re pretty quick and, you know, pretty handsy at times, and I just felt like the more the game went on, we kind of wore them down just a little bit and got some easier buckets in the second half and was able to pull away a little bit.”
Mungle said that he is pleased with his team’s overall performance.
“In the second half, we just didn’t hit some shots, and they hit some shots,” said Mungle. “I mean, they’re a really good basketball team. They drove all the way down here to make this game up because Jessieville couldn’t play. … We’ve got to do away with a few turnovers but, you know, I’m pleased with the way we played. We turned it over some but most of our turnovers were dead-ball turnovers to where we threw it out of bounds or something.
“In the second half, we gave some live-ball where they were able to get in transition. And they’re really good in transition. We played with them for about two and a half quarters and, you know, right there down the stretch we got back to about 7 or so and had a couple of possessions that we missed shots on. And for us to beat a team like that, we’re going to have to hit some outside shots and we just didn’t really shoot it great. They’re a good basketball team, they’re
well-coached, they defend, they do lots of things well; I was just glad we … for the most part, we kept the game slowed down because if we ever got into an up-and-down game with them, we can’t play that with them. They’re just too quick for us.”
Soden said that he was just glad to get the team back out on the court.
“We’ve only had one practice in the last 10 days,” he said. “So we just needed to get get out there and play because we go into conference play when we get back in school. We’ve got back-to-back conference games on Monday and Tuesday of next week, so we needed to play. We had probably eight games canceled so far this year at different times for COVID and stuff, and we needed to get on the floor.”
Fountain Lake held much of the momentum the first half of the game. Hamric got the Lady Cobras on the board first with a 3-pointer in the opening minute and followed up with two more for a 10-7 lead with 1:30 remaining in the opening stanza. Tuckerman’s Mackenzie Soden answered with a buzzer-beating trey to knot the score at 12-all entering the second. Hamric kept the Lady Cobras in the running in the second quarter by connecting on a pair of 3-point plays before the Lady Bulldogs’ late burst to close out the half.
Hamric led Fountain Lake with 20 points, nine rebounds and one steal. Craver had 14 points, seven rebounds, two steals and an assist, Bailey Helton had 5 points, four rebounds and two steals and Martin had three blocks, four assists and two steals.
Williams led Tuckerman with 18 points, three rebounds and three steals. Head added 16 points, four rebounds and two assists, Gardner had 6 points, four steals, three rebounds, and two assists and Dawson had 6 points with one assist and two rebounds. Soden finished with 5 points, two steals and an assist.
Fountain Lake next plays on Jan. 5 at Malvern while Tuckerman plays at Midland on Jan. 5.