HARTWELL – It wasn’t the ending North Hall had envisioned Wednesday night at the Dog Pound.
The Lady Trojans (19-10) expected to leave Hart County (23-6) with a ticket to the Class 3A quarterfinals, but Hart County's Torrion Starks and Taniya Alexander had different plans. The two Lady Dogs combined for 49 points to knocked off North Hall 73-66 in the second round of the Class 3A playoffs.
Sparks ended the night with a game-high 32 points while Alexander finished with 17 points to lead the Lady Bulldogs.
“Torrion, she’s an incredible player – tough to defend,” House said. “(Ansleigh) Ferguson picked up two fouls early tonight and when we didn’t have her in there, Alexander just kind of got going.”
Grace Hollifield led the Lady Trojans with 18 points, just one of four in double figures on the night. Ansleigh Ferguson finished with 15, Lauren Swanson had 13 and Maci Gillespie had 10.
“This was a truly a special team, and even though we didn’t get to take that next step today, it will be taken by our program because of the people in that locker room,” North Hall coach Kristi House said. “The players on this team, this year, have really put us where we want to be and the next step will be taken.”
After a back and forth first quarter, that saw both teams snagging the lead at one point and ending with Hart up 11-10, Alexander took over the boards and the scoring in the second.
Starks assisted Alexander to push Hart County’s lead to 13 points, 30-17, on a 12-0 run late in the second quarter. The two combined to score 16 of the team’s 19 points in the period.
Grace Hollifield ended North Hall’s drought with a 3-pointer at the end of the half, going into the locker room trailing 30-20.
The Lady Trojans 5-0 spurt to open the second half closed the gap to 30-25, seemed to spark a fire. But, Starks and Alexander dowsed the fire quickly on back-to-back buckets to push the lead back up 10 points with 1:34 left in the third. Hart County led 50-38 by the end of the third quarter.
Trailing by 14 points late in the final period, the Lady Trojans began to mount a comeback with 1:10 to go. Swanson, Hollifield and Gillespie fueled a run late, forcing Hart to turnover the ball over in the backcourt and cutting the lead to five, 69-64 with 20 seconds left. The Lady Trojans finished the game on a 12-4 run before running out of time.
“One more time – that’s what we kept telling the kids,” House said. “When it got bad, we told to just keep being who we are until the last horn goes off – don’t stray from what we are and I thought we showed that in that last little spurt there. Our kids are going to continue to be who we are no matter what kind of adversity or situation it is. I’m just happy to coach there and happy to have those kids coming back another year. That step will be taken because they were here."
