Hunt High athletic director Jon Smith had a simple tongue-in-cheek request for Lorraine Creech on Wednesday after her first game as head coach of the Lady Warriors concluded with a 59-54 overtime victory over county rival Beddingfield.
Don’t retire.
“Well I’ve got to finish out the season!” Creech said. “I told the man I’ll finish out the season so I’ve got what, 11 more games? Ten in the conference, and one with (Beddingfield) on Friday. And we’ll see what happens after that.”
Creech’s introduction to the head coaching chair, which was accepted after first-year coach Percy Jones tendered his resignation Tuesday, nearly got away from the 3-A Big East Conference Lady Warriors (1-1) after a 14-for-28 display at the foul line and a Beddingfield comeback spurred on by sensational sophomore Daneesha Briggs.
But sophomore Kennedi Smith’s 3-pointer in the closing minute of the extra period provided the go-ahead basket to stay just after Briggs knocked down a trey of her own to send the 2-A Eastern Plains Conference Lady Bruins (1-2) up 54-53 with 89 seconds remaining in the extra period.
“I was looking at the score and I was like, I’ve got to make this 3 so we could tie it up,” Smith said. “Not tie it up, but get in the lead. That’s all that was going through my head — I’ve got to shoot this 3.”
The go-ahead 3-pointer came in one smooth motion after previous attempts came up rushed.
“We’ve been telling her to just let the shot come to her,” Creech said. “I think a couple times, she came down and took inadvertent shots, and we told her to let the shot come to her. I think at that time, it came to her. She set her feet, and she did like she’s supposed to do.”
Hunt owned a 13-point lead in the third quarter as its inside game of sophomore post Kayla Haley and junior Ariyanna Carlton made life difficult for the Beddingfield guard, who poured in 37 points. Haley and Carlton took their respective turns pinning Briggs down on the low block and drawing fouls, allowing Hunt to open up a 36-23 lead.
But what was a comfortable working margin for Hunt dissipated behind Briggs and freshman K.J. Hill. Briggs hit a 3-pointer to make it a six-point game, and Hill’s second-chance basket cut the Hunt lead to 37-33 entering the fourth to complete a 10-1 run boosted by the application of pressure defense.
As Hunt kept up the physical toll on Briggs, she and Hill pushed the Lady Bruins back into contention. Hill had a crucial 3-pointer to make it a one-possession game at 42-39 with 3 minutes, 46 seconds left, and Briggs put the Lady Bruins 45-44 with the second of two free throws with just over two minutes remaining.
Beddingfield owned a 47-45 edge before sophomore Audrey Earp put in a hook shot to tie it at the 43.6-second mark, and Smith’s layup made it 49-47 Hunt with 36 seconds to go in regulation.
With Beddingfield in possession, Briggs appeared to have it knocked out of her hand by Hunt freshman Ti’Asia Taylor. The ball rolled into the backcourt and remained loose, when an inadvertent whistle occurred. Returning the ball to the Lady Bruins, Briggs drove and drained a jumper inside the arc. The Hunt defense collapsed on Briggs, leaving sophomore Reji Pender wide open for a game-winning trey that was off the mark and forced overtime.
“I was glad to see our girls fight back,” Beddingfield head coach Jody O’Neal said. “That was the most encouraging thing, fighting back and they played hard. We had a chance at the end to win; just didn’t go our way this time.”
Taylor led three Lady Warriors in double figures with 16 points. Smith had 13, while Haley had 12. Hill reached double figures for the Lady Bruins, bucketing 10 points.
Meanwhile, there’s already a marked change of purpose on the Hunt sideline with Creech assisted by Mark Kent.
“She’s working us good,” Smith said of Creech. “Much harder.”
HUNT (59)
Taylor 16, Smith 13, Haley 12, Carlton 5, McNair 5, Earp 8.
