Lady Hornets run over by Bibb County
Published 12:00 am Sunday, January 16, 2005
The ride to a win was rolling along smoothly for the Dallas County High School Lady Hornets on Friday night.
That’s when their victory vehicle began having its problems.
Dallas County was outscored 29-2 in the third period by Bibb County and dropped a 74-54 decision to the Lady Choctaws in the Class 4A, Area 6 contest at the Hornet’s Nest.
Leading by seven at halftime, the Lady Hornets ran out of gas against a more aggressive Bibb County offense.
After being severely criticized at halftime by their coach, the Lady Choctaws revved it up in the third quarter. Highlighted by Charity Cottingham’s back-to-back three-pointers, Bibb County took a 43-35 lead less than four minutes into the period.
“We let down and played soft defense in the third quarter,” Dallas County coach Roxanne Jones said. “It was a total breakdown of our whole game plan.
“We just had a bad third quarter,” Jones added. “We played eight minutes of soft defense and we didn’t move on offense. We didn’t play team ball.”
After motoring through the first half, the Dallas County offense had some sugar put into its gas tank. Bibb County went after the ball with a newly found exuberance, stealing the ball nearly at will and scoring fast break buckets.
The Lady Hornets were kept off the scoreboard after halftime until Amber Motley sank a 12-footer from the top of the key with 5.5 seconds remaining in the third period. Bibb County led 57-37 after the third period.
The Lady Hornets were cruising along against Bibb County early on. Dallas County used some of its strongest perimeter shooting of the season to jump out to the first-quarter lead. Velencia King’s jumper from the left wing just inside the three-point line handed the Lady Hornets a 15-9 lead.
A quick 7-0 run midway through the second period appeared to have the Lady Hornets in complete control. The run was capped by Crystal Turk’s bucket from the top of the key that stretched the Dallas County lead to 31-20 with 3:13 remaining before halftime. The Lady Hornets enjoyed a 35-28 lead at intermission.