Returning starters lead Lady Hawks to first region victory
Matt Harris
Staff writer
2-2-2017
MT. PLEASANT—This week has been brought to you by the letter “F,” as in: FINALLY!
After a long and painful nine-game losing streak, the Lady Hawks basketball team rode its returning starters to their first region victory and their first win since Dec. 16, beating visiting Canyon View, 55-33.
Junior Catherine Lund led the Lady Hawks in the winning effort with 16 points including three threes, while fellow junior Lexie Olson chipped in 11 points. The Lady Hawks scored more points (55) than in their last two games combined (44) and broke the 50-point ceiling for the first time since Dec. 2.
“The girls really came into the game against hoping to get a win,” head coach Randi Griffith said. “About halfway through the first quarter, they started believing they would win and started playing with that belief. They played great defense, made it hard on them to get a good look at the basket, and they played pretty clean. We knew that they would look to get fouled, and our girls did a good job of playing straight up defense.”
In light of the struggles for the Lady Hawks this season, the win also came with some well-deserved relief. “The best thing about that game is that the girls played well as a team and remembered how much fun it is to play well as a team,” Griffith said. “It was fun. This group of girls has battled through a lot of adversity this year, and it was good to see them come together and get a victory.”
While North Sanpete was able to get some motivation back against the Lady Falcons, it wasn’t enough to power the Lady Hawks through their next opponent, Carbon, a game that Griffith says was over “before it even started.”
It certainly looked that way by the end of the first half, with the Lady Dinos pouring on the points to lead at halftime, 31-11. The Lady Hawks put up more of a fight in the second half but could not get close to bringing the game back, eventually falling to Carbon, 51-35. Olson led the Lady Hawks with nine points.
“We came into the game not believing that we could win, and we played like that for the first half,” Griffith said. “At halftime, the girls realized that they are better than that and really started to play defense and rebound to try and get back in the game. It takes way too much energy to dig out of a hole against good teams, and we just didn’t have enough.”
Despite the loss, optimism is still holding for Griffith’s squad. The Lady Hawks played Juab last Tuesday (score next week) and are playing their final home game against Richfield tomorrow night at 7 p.m. Their final region game is on the road against Canyon View next Tuesday.
“I think that we are learning to come out and play our game, and I am just hoping that it shows in our play in the next few games,” Griffith said.
