Girls Basketball
February 05, 2008
HITCHCOCK — The Hitchcock High School
girls basketball team took care of the blowout.
The Lady Dawgs used a strong third-quarter stretch to beat Van
Vleck, 77-50, and clinch an undefeated district season.
Hitchcock Girls 77, Van Vleck 50
The Lady Dawgs turned around a lackluster stretch of three games
with a dominant triumph over its closest district rival.
Coach Jessica Quintanilla said her team had been missing some fire.
After falling behind early Tuesday night, that changed quickly.
Hitchcock (26-4, 14-0) got 10 points, three steals and two blocks
from Jasmine Beard in the first quarter to rebound from the early
deficit.
The Lady Dawgs led by 11 at halftime then stretched their lead to
as many as 27 in the third quarter.
“One of our goals has been to go 14-0 in district,” Quintanilla
said. “At halftime, I put a lot of it on them and challenged
them.”
Most of that strong third-quarter performance came from Hitchcock’s
half-court trap — a switch from the man-to-man defense it used in
the first half. The Lady Dawgs held Van Vleck (24-10, 11-3) to one
field goal in the first seven minutes of the third to all but
clinch the game.
Now Hitchcock turns its focus to a playoff warm-up game against
Class 2A Kountze. The Lady Dawgs will play at the Beaumont-area
school at 2 p.m. Saturday. They will follow that with a
second-round playoff game next weekend.
LaTiffany Hensley led Hitchcock with 21 points, 12 rebounds and
three steals. Beard added 21 points, six rebounds and three steals.
Destiny Scranton had 11 points and 11 rebounds, DaMarree Coleman
had 10 points, Karissa Garner had seven points and nine assists and
LaDerricka Eden had five points and five assists.
Quintanilla said she was happy to see her players regain their
focus on Tuesday because they will need it from here on out.
“When you’re not being challenged every night for two months, it’s
tough to keep the kids in the right frame of mind,” she said. “But
like in the second half tonight, when our backs are against the
wall, we can be amazing.”
