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Lady Hornets edged in district final
By Larry Lewis
DREXEL, Mo. -- The Lady Hornets of Hume suffered a heartbreaking 49-47 loss to Drexel in the girls District 12 final on Friday.
Hume (20-7) controlled much of the first half, building an advantage of 19-11 midway of the second quarter.
Then Drexel (17-10) went on a 9-0 run to lunge ahead before Kayla O'Rear's trey broke the streak and lifted the Lady Hornets to a 22-20 halftime lead.
Hume extended the margin to four at 36-32 as the third quarter expired.
In a wild-and-wooly fourth period, the Lady Hornets led 40-35 with about five minutes left. Two quick Drexel baskets narrowed the gap to 40-39 with 4:15 to go. O'Rear, who finished with a game-high 17 points, answered with a 3-pointer to give Hume a little breathing room at 43-39.
But Drexel's pressure defense began to tell.
"Their defense was all over (us), everywhere," said Hume coach Larry Berry. "They weren't sagging to help; they were running to help. They took us out of our (offensive) patterns."
While forcing turnovers and errant shots, an 8-0 spurt propelled the No. 1-seeded Lady Bobcats up 47-43 with less than two minutes remaining.
Hume's lone senior Kayla Morrison almost singlehandedly rescued the second-seeded Lady Hornets. She scored to narrow the gap to 47-45, then scored again to knot the contest at 47 with 15 seconds left.
Said Berry, "Unfortunately, we left them too much time, but you can't turn away that shot because its too soon. We had to put the ball in the hole, play defense and hope we get to overtime."
Drexel's Leah Martin, however, had other plans. She raced downcourt and swished a jumper off the right wing for the game-winner with 2.1 on the clock.
"I was concerned that we might get a hack foul and put them on the line," said Berry, "and I didn't want that. I appreciate the fact that we made them shoot the ball. If it goes down, it goes down. You have to give them (Drexel) credit for executing."
Hume attempted a long inbounds pass for one final shot, but the throw-in was intercepted, as was the Lady Hornets' gallant effort to capture their first district title since '95.
Morrison was the scoring runner-up for Hume with 12 points. Sophomore Janine Castillo tallied eight, Cindy Murdock six and Nicole Hinton four.
Drexel was led by three sophomores,
Erin Michael with 14 and Ashley Musick and Martin with 10 each.
Many Hume followers were not fans of the game officiating.
Berry said, "All I can say is we were playing a zone, they were playing a pressure man-to-man. I would tend to think that they would have more fouls than we would."
Drexel went to the line 15 times, hitting 11, compared to Hume's 3-of-6.