With her Lady Dragons clinging to a one-point lead at halftime Friday against visiting Lynn Cap, Harlan coach Tiffany Hamm found both a lineup and a defense she liked and soon watched the momentum turn in her team’s favor.
Hamm changed 60 percent of her starting lineup by adding Angel Wynn, Faith Hoskins and Peighton Jones in the second half to join holdovers Aymanni Wynn and Kylie Noe. Harlan then went to a trapping 1-3-1 defense with a more athletic lineup and forced Lynn Camp into 12 turnovers in the third quarter while outscoring the Lady Cats 14-5 to take control on the way to a 45-27 victory.
“We play a lot of people anyway, but I always reserve the right to try to find the right combination,” Hamm said. “I thought we did a good job defensively, and we have all year. We were struggling some on offense in the first half tonight, but did a better job the second half once we started forcing some turnovers.”
“We couldn’t figure it out,” said Lynn Camp coach Darrell Hendrix of the Harlan zone. “I was trying to tell them how to break it. We were trying to get the ball to the corner and then down to the low post, but we kept turning it over. We threw the ball away too much. When we get to the point where we block out and rebound and stop turning it over, we’ll be a decent basketball team. We’re so young with freshmen and sophomores and one senior. We just have to grow up. We’ll keep pushing. I want us to finish strong, then we’ll get to work.”
Wynn and Noe continued to carry the Harlan offense as they scored 19 and 13 points, respectively. Noe also grabbed 13 rebounds.
It was the second win in two nights for the Lady Dragons, who are trying to build some momentum going into the 52nd District Tournament opening March 15 at Harlan High School.
“It’s always good to build some momentum going into the postseason, and that’s what we hope to do,” Hamm said. “We have a very good Letcher (defending 14th Region champs) on Monday and then play a much improved Red Bird on Tuesday. It would be great to go into the tournament on a four-game winning streak.”
Freshman guard Jorja Carnes scored 10 points to lead the 9-15 Lady Cats, who shot only 15 percent (eight of 55) from the field for the game, including two of 22 from behind the 3-point line.
Aymanni Wynn scored all of Harlan’s points in the opening quarter, hitting three of five shots in helping the Lady Dragons build a 7-3 lead. Jorja Carnes had the only basket for Lynn Camp in a one-of-16 shooting performance.
Lynn Camp’s struggles continued into the second period with six more missed as Harlan extended its lead to eight on baskets by Kylie Noe and Aymanni Wynn.
The Lady Dragons had problems of their own on offense and could manage only one basket over the final 5:40 of the half as Lynn Camp closed with a 7-0 run behind Carnes, Lindsey Cox and Alyssa Crumpler to cut the deficit to 13-12 at halftime.
Defense ignited the Harlan offense in the third quarter as Lynn Camp turned the ball over seven times in the opening three minutes of the second half as Wynn and Noe scored in transition to push the lead to double digits. Lynn Camp hit only two of 13 shots in the quarter and trailed 27-17 going into the final period.
The Lady Cats got as close as five in the fourth quarter despite missing 14 of 15 shots from the field. Two back-breaking 3-pointers by Angel Wynn were the only two field goals of the quarter for Harlan as the lead moved back to 10. The Lady Dragons hit nine of 12 free throws in the final two minutes in closing the game with a 9-0 run.
Harlan returns to action Monday at home against Letcher Central. Lynn Camp travels to Williamsburg on Tuesday.
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Mackenzie Owens scored seven points to lead Lynn Camp to a 17-11 win in junior varsity action. Alyssa Mounce scored five, followed by Baileigh Bargo with four and Gabriella Carolle with one.
Harlan (3-9) was led by Annie Hoskins with five points. Abbie Jones and Carly Madden added four and two points, respectively.