Wolves roll over Russellville in Lake Hamilton Classic
PEARCY — Lake Hamilton held Russellville to one point in the first half as it rolled to a 46-28 win Thursday in the Lake Hamilton Classic at Wolf Arena.
In a defensive first quarter, Lake Hamilton (2-1) scored the first points of the game at the 4:00 mark, taking a 6-0 lead in the first quarter, and the Wolves stretched their lead to 22-1 at the half thanks to the hot hand of Mondo Watkins who sank four buckets in the quarter.
“The defense carried us,” said Wolves head coach Scotty Pennington. “They struggled to the ball. They struggled inside, outside. I thought we created a lot of that. Our zone stifled them a little bit. We knew this was their first game, and we knew they were a young team.”
The Wolves put up another 13 points in the third while allowing 10 for the Cyclones to take a 35-11 lead going into the fourth quarter.
With the game out of reach, Russellville (0-1) dominated the final eight minutes, outscoring the Wolves 17-10 to set the final.
Early on, Pennington called for the Wolves to play a zone offense, hoping to catch the younger Cyclones off-guard.
“Maybe the decision to play zone early stifled them,” he said. “That’s the difference in the game. When you hold somebody to one point in a half, you’ve got to win the game. Obviously, they got going a little bit better in the second half. Some of that probably was us because, a 20 point lead, you tend to relax, and you can’t do that.”
Watkins led the Wolves offensively, putting up 15 points with five rebounds, four steals, two assists and two blocks. Kanaan Williams added eight points with four rebounds and an assist, Clyde Hill had five points with six rebounds and two steals and Lane Kersey and Adjani Winston four apiece. Sebastion Winson and Jack Johnson each had three with Briar Cleland rounding out the scoring with one.
“Mondo was Mondo, doing a good job of keeping pressure,” Pennington said. “He’s tough to stay in front of. I thought Lane did some good things. Kanaan and Clyde are tough on the inside. We’re figuring out that we have more depth than we’ve had in the past and we’re trying to work some pieces there.
The Wolves hit 43 percent from the field, but they sank 20 of 30 from the charity stripe for 62.5 percent.
Zach Carter led the Cyclones with seven points, Spencer Terry sinking a pair of treys for six and Bowen Mathis adding four.
Now 2-0, Lake Hamilton will face Sylvan Hills at 3:30 p.m. this afternoon.
“It’s still early, but I’m tickled that we’re 2-0 against 6A right now,” Pennington said. “That’s a big thing for us, especially for a team that’s in our conference tournament, especially as seeding goes later on in the year.”
Girls
The Lady Wolves struggled in the first half but rebounded in the second to take a 51-43 win over Kirby in the Lake Hamilton Classic.
The Lady Wolves fell behind early as Kirby (5-3) jumped to a 6-0 lead in the opening quarter, but Taylor Wells and Jenny Peake each hit a trey to pull within 8-6. Lake Hamilton (2-1) added 13 in the second, but Kirby added 14 to take a three-point lead into the break.
The Lady Wolves made several changes coming out of the break, putting up 15 to take a 32-28 lead going into the final period.
“I’m really proud of what we executed the start of the second half,” Lady Wolves head coach Blake Condley said. “We tried to make some adjustments at halftime and talk about some different things. I’m really proud of how the girls came out and did that. I’m proud of our effort from start to finish tonight. I never felt like that we weren’t playing hard. I just thought there were some execution things we didn’t do well and some down the stretch things.”
Wells led the Lady Wolves with 22 points and six rebounds, Logan Keener added 16 points with six rebounds and Grace Tedder eight points with three rebounds. Peake added four points and Serenity Foshee three.
“She’s put the work in, not just this year,” Condley said of Wells. “For years, building up to now, she’s going to stay after practice every day. She’s going to put time in. Now it’s starting to come in in a game, all the work that she’s put in. I’m not surprised at all. I’m just proud that she was able to get it going tonight.”
Gracen Smith led Kirby with 20 points and seven rebounds, Joce Mount had seven points and McKenzie Jones finished with six.
The Lady Wolves struggled struggled to get shots to fall, hitting only
46 percent, but the team made nine of
17 three-point attempts for 52 percent from beyond the arc.
“We’ve really been working on our three-point shots,” Condley said. “The ball’s got to go inside first. We don’t need to just settle for threepoint shots. When the other team’s got a six-foot girl in there that we’re going to try to shoot over, then it’s just good basketball for us to kick it out and the shooter’s spotted up and ready to shoot it. We want to move it. We want to try to get it inside, and the girls did a really good job of finding the shooters, finding T. Wells, finding Grace when she got spotted up. I’m just proud of how we shared the ball with each other tonight.”
The Lady Wolves face Conway at 2 p.m. today in the final day of the tournament.