By Michael Lindsay
The Smith County Lady Owls picked up a 62-53 victory at rival Gordonsville Saturday evening to split the season series with the Lady Tigers.
Forward Chloe Collins led Smith County with 18 points, followed by 16 from Addie Hawkins.
“Everything we do goes back to Addie Hawkins,” said Smith County head coach Matt Ferrell. “She controls the games and guards the other team’s best players. Abagail Hackett played well and shot it well early. They came in with a game plan to make her make shots, and she’s done that multiple times this year. Elle Haughton played well; she’s been the motor for us all year.”
Libby Clark led Gordonsville with 21 points including 15 4th-quarter points.
Smith County (8-5) led by more than 20 points in the third quarter before Gordonsville (5-6) cut the deficit to 7 with less than 3 minutes remaining.
“Our girls did a really good job coming out of the gate of really locking down defensively,” Ferrell said. “I felt like we controlled the game early. They got back into it in the fourth quarter; they shot a lot of free throws and that made it a little more competitive.”
Smith County came out of the gate hot to take an 11-0 lead on a Hawkins layup with 2:31 left in the first period. The Lady Owls led 14-6 after one quarter and pushed their lead out to 25-8 with 4:10 left until the break.
Smith County held a 33-17 lead at halftime and pushed their advantage out to 42-19 early in the third period. The Lady Owls led 46-27 after three quarters.
Trailing by 19 points at the start of the fourth quarter, the Gordonsville Lady Tigers went on a run to cut the Smith County lead to 11 points (51-40) with 3:11 remaining.
Gordonsville didn’t stop there as a pair of Clark free throws cut the Smith County lead to 7 (51-44) with 2:36 remaining.
With the Lady Tigers closing fast, coach Ferrell’s message to his team was simple.
“To hold your composure and make disciplined plays,” he said. “A lot of that late was they got us out of control a little bit. We started playing the way they wanted us to.”
Gordonsville would get no closer as the Lady Owls closed out the game from the free-throw line, making 9-10 from the stripe in the fourth quarter to win 62-53.
Up next, Smith County takes a break before hitting the road to the Bobcat Classic in Hilton Head, SC, after Christmas. Gordonsville hosts Watertown on Tuesday.
Smith County (62): Chloe Collins 18, Addie Hawkins 16, Abigayle Hackett 11, Elle Haughton 8, Anna Dallas 7, Elle Airyn Enoch 2
Gordonsville (53): Libby Clark 21, Olivia Brown 12, Nevaeh West 7, Kamara Young 4, McKenzie Herron 4, Kali Underwood 3, Bailey Stewart 2
