It is now tournament time for some of the county teams, post-Christmas. Two of those teams, Good Hope and Hanceville, were in action Monday night on the first day of the Hayden Christmas Tournament.
Mortimer Jordan 52, Good Hope 36 (Girls)
Good Hope's Erika Woodall and Mortimer Jordan's Kaylan Hines scored all of their teams’ points early on as the Blue Devils took an early 5-4 lead. Leyton Seal hit a three and Kate Kent hit a layup to give the Lady Raiders a 9-4 lead. Off a Good Hope turnover, Abby Crane hit a layup and got fouled. She completed the three-point play to cut the lead to 9-8 after one.
Hines gave Mortimer Jordan the lead in the second quarter and the lead was increased to three on a Jaydn Allen layup. After the Lady Raiders cut the lead to one twice: once on a Alex Stansell layup, and the next on a Kent layup, MacKynzie Watson and Nicole Goldsmith hit gold on their shots to increase the lead to 18-13, but Kent completed her own three-point play to cut the lead to 18-16. That was the closest the Lady Raiders got the whole game as the Blue Devils finished the quarter on a 10-2 run to take a 28-18 lead at the half.
Mortimer Jordan increased their lead to 39-24 after three and wound up taking the game by a double-digit margin.
Hines finished with 15 to lead Mortimer Jordan. Anna Boger had 10, and Goldsmith ended up with seven. They will take on Hueytown, who defeated Cleveland in the opening game, 58-43, at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Kent led Good Hope with 17 points and Woodall finished with six. They will take on Cleveland at 5 p.m. in the opening game Tuesday.
Hayden 57, Hanceville 48 (Girls)
Hayden's Kayla Jackson and Hanceville's Kierra Merriweather put each team on the scoreboard. The Wildcats scored the next eight points to take a 10-2 lead as Hanceville simply could not get a shot to fall in the opening quarter, until Karmen Johnson hit a layup for the Lady Bulldogs' first basket of the game with 1:35 remaining in the opening quarter to cut the lead to 10-4, which was the score after one.
Christina Watson's Lady Bulldogs finally got their offense rolling in the second quarter. After an Evin Bibb layup made it 12-6, Merriweather and Cassidy Campbell got the offense jump-started, leading Hanceville on a 7-0 run. It finished on a Merriweather long jumper, giving the Lady Bulldogs a 13-12 lead with 4:54 remaining in the first half. Each team traded the lead after a Hanceville travel. The Wildcats scored the next five points to take a 19-15 lead, but the Lady Bulldogs went into the locker room with a little bit of momentum as Andra Hackney hit a layup to cut the lead to 19-17 at the half.
The lead did not get above five in the third quarter as neither team wanted the other to get momentum. Hayden took a 34-33 lead going into the final quarter.
After a Merriweather layup cut the Wildcat lead to 40-36, Trinatie Duke scored five quick points to stretch the lead to 45-36 and Hanceville got no closer than six the rest of the game as Hayden went on to win by nine.
Micayla Rickels, Taylor Garrett and Bibb all finished with 13 for Hayden. Jackson and Duke each had seven. They will take on Springville at 8 p.m. Tuesday night.
Campbell and Merriweather each had 12 points for Hanceville. Johnson had nine, and Hackney finished with eight. They will be off Tuesday and will play next on Wednesday.
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