Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Lady Cards Play With Maturity
FARMINGTON — Farmington hit its first three shots en route to taking a 13-point first quarter lead and winding up with a convincing 63-48 road victory at Alma on Tuesday, Dec. 10.
“Alma’s a tough place to win for a lot of reasons. One because they’re a good basketball team and two (Alma coach) Cody Mann is one of the best in the business. Nobody puts any more effort into scouting and breaking people down than that guy does,” said Farmington coach Brad Johnson. “So, it’s a tough opponent. It was tough to go on the road. They’ve got a good club, they shoot it, their kids are very versatile and they can do a lot of different things and I thought it was going to be a challenge for us going down there defensively.”
Makenna Vanzant and Tori Kersey each scored 18 points to lead Farmington while Trinity Johnson added 16. Alma was not able to match-up effectively against any of those three. The Lady
Cardinals scored 16 points inside the paint in the first period alone with their other six coming on 3-point shots by Vanzant and Trinity Johnson as they built a 22-9 lead going into the second quarter.
The lead was up to 15 when Carson Dillard’s trey went through the net putting Farmington up 36-21. Alma made four 3-pointers to close out the half capped by Hillarie Mata’s 4-point play with 1.4 seconds remaining in the first half. That trimmed Farmington’s lead to 36-28 at intermission.
“We got off to a good start and true to form like any good team does Alma answered with a run of their own to close the gap at halftime and then they put some pressure on us to answer their run with a run of our own,” Brad Johnson said. “I thought we did that. We held them in the third quarter. We came back out and really stepped up our defensive intensity, held them to seven points that third quarter. That’s the mark of a good team, that’s what good teams do.”
Farmington built the lead back to double digits in the third quarter. Trinity Johnson sank a pair of triples plus a swipe and score. She took the ball downcourt when Audrey Culpepper’s blocked shot triggered a fast-break. Trinity Johnson drove, drew the defense and dished off to Kersey for an easy basket and for good measure Vanzant blocked an Alma 3-point attempt at the buzzer.
Alma made one more charge cutting the gap to 53-42 midway through the fourth. Kersey answered with consecutive buckets, the second coming on a giveand-go with Joelle Tidwell. Mata sank another trey and Zoie McGhee put in a miss drawing a foul. Her free throw was no good, but Lydia Mann grabbed the rebound and was fouled. She made 1-of-2 charity shots as Alma tried to claw its way back down 57-48 at the 1:48 mark of the fourth.
Farmington, however, clamped down defensively and Alma never got another point. Vanzant scored six points in the last 45.5 seconds including a driving lay-up to beat full-court pressure to put the game out of reach and Farmington won 63-48.
“This team’s got an interesting level of maturity to them right now. They’ve handled adversity. They don’t seem right now to let it affect them. They just kind of unify, they draw closer as a team, they play better and they go back out — they’ve kind of got that ‘next play, next game’ mentality,” Brad Johnson said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to sustain that and kind of let that carry us throughout the season.”
Farmington 63, Alma 48
Farmington 22 14 13 14 — 63 Alma 9 19 7 13 — 48 Farmington (9-1): Tori Kersey 8 2-2 18, Makenna Vanzant 6 5-6 18, Trinity Johnson 5 2-2 16, Audrey Culpepper 2-2 0-0 4, Carson Dillard 1 0-0 3, Joelle Tidwell 1-1 0-0 2, Kaci Drain 0-1 2-2 2, Morgan Brye 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23 11-12 63.
Alma (2-2): Lydia Mann 5 5-6 15, Zoie McGhee 5 0-1 13, Hillarie Mata 3 1-1 10, Breanna Stacy 2 2-2 8, Halyn Carmack 1 0-0 2. Totals 16 8-10 48.
3-point Goals — Alma — 8 (Mata 3, McGhee 3, Stacy 2). Farmington — 6 (Trinity Johnson 4, Dillard, Vanzant, Drain). Rebounds — Alma 26, Farmington 29. Assists — Alma 10, Farmington 13. Steals — Alma 5, Farmington . Blocks — Alma 0, Farmington 4.