Danville goes cold in area finals
The effort was there for Danville, but the Lady Hawks couldn’t get the shots to fall, as Good Hope took the Class 3A, Area 13 championship with a 34-25 win over Danville.
“We had great effort, but we just weren’t going anywhere,” said head coach Paul Wilson. “When you hold a team to six field goals for the game, you like your chances to win, but we just couldn’t shoot the ball inside or outside. We couldn’t dribble the ball. We couldn’t pass the ball. And we couldn’t get rebounds when we needed them. If you can’t score, it’s hard to win.”
The Hawks fell into an 11-2 hole in the first quarter, thanks in part to Good Hope’s zone, which forced a number of turnovers and easy scoring opportunities early.
Gracie George kept Danville in the game at halftime, hitting a pair of 3-pointers in the second quarter to keep the Good Hope advantage at 19-10 at the half. George finished with seven for the game.
Danville switched to a zone defense in the third quarter, which confused the Lady Raiders. They were held to just one point in the stanza.
The Hawks had just one field goal in the third quarter, but they cut the advantage to 20-15.
Danville had a golden opportunity in the opening moments of the fourth quarter. They forced a Good Hope turnover and had a chance to cut into the five-point advantage.
However, the Lady Hawks gave it right back on an errant pass in the backcourt.
Good Hope couldn’t take advantage to put the game away, missing a number of free throws down the stretch.
Tara Tuck and Sydni Shelton hit a pair of 3-pointers, cutting the lead to six both times. On the latter attempt, Danville got the ball back down 27-21 after Good Hope missed a pair of free throws.
But before they could get a shot off, Kacy Thomas stole the ball and took it to the hoop with about 90 seconds left in the game.
That play effectively sealed the win for Good Hope, as they made enough free throws to ice the game.
Thomas finished with 10 points to lead all scorers.
Shelton and Tuck had five points each for Danville followed by Charlee Anderson with three, Morgan Weatherwax and Shelia Cordova with two each and McKayla Stover with one.
The Lady Hawks will travel to Winfield Thursday in the Class 3A Northwest Sub-regional game. Winfield defeated Hamilton 48-36.