Both of Friday’s varsity games at West Henderson looked over at halftime. One actually was. West’s girls erased a 16-point halftime deficit to win the opener 51-46 over North Henderson. The Falcon boys built a 30-point halftime lead in their 78-41 Western Athletic Conference victory.
Daniel Hyatt scored half of his game-high 18 points in the first quarter and West held North to one second-quarter field goal. It added up to a 49-19 lead at the break.
“I told the kids earlier this week that it had been awhile since I thought we really played well,” said West coach Rob Bliss. “Our defense got us going early. It got us out in transition and made it an up-tempo game. Usually when we can get a good transition game going we shoot the ball well.
“It all kind of snowballed on top of each other.”
A technical foul on West during pre-game warmups helped the visiting Knights take a 4-0 lead. But a Hyatt 3-pointer gave West a 5-4 advantage and the Falcons never trailed again.
The Falcons used a variety of full- and half-court traps to force Knight point guard Jordan Brunelle to give up the ball.
“That’s a good philosophy and we have to be able to do something with the ball when it’s out of his hands,” said North coach Skip Taylor. “We didn’t make some good decisions and part of that was my fault. I don’t think I had them as prepared as I should have.”
All the preparation in the world might not have helped against a hot-shooting Falcon team. Hyatt hit 7-of-8 from the field while Kevin Thomas (13 points) was 6-of-7.
Keenan Young and Adam Troutman each scored 13 points for West, which moved to 9-8 overall and 4-1 in the WAC.
Troutman had nine rebounds while Hyatt added seven steals and six rebounds.
Colby Drake led North (5-11, 1-3) with 16 points while Brunelle finished with eight.
The Lady Falcons were ice-cold against North’s changing zone defenses in the first half. West busted the zones with its outside shooting in the second.
West coach Stephanie Scott-Gaddy said she thought it was the teams’ best shooting half of the season.
“Things were falling for North in the first half and in the second half everything was falling for us,” she said.
Trailing 30-14 at the start of the third, the Lady Falcons went on a 20-5 run to close the period to pull within 39-38 by the start of the fourth.
West tied the score on a Summer Kremer jumper with 5:42 remaining and took the lead for good when Kremer scored inside 30 seconds later.
“I didn’t feel like we came out with the same hustle in the second half,” said Lady Knight coach Kevin Rhodes. “We knew West was going to make a run.”
Sophomore Ashley Rogers led the charge with 11 of her game-high 13 points in the second half. Kremer scored eight of her 10 in the second half and had six rebounds.
Erica Cantrell added 11 points for West (5-12, 3-2) while freshman guard Sieara Bishop added nine points, seven assists and six rebounds.
Sydney Lyda and Ashley Brown led the Lady Knights (8-8, 1-3) with 11 points apiece. Jodi Edwards added 10 points.
North returns to conference action on Tuesday at home against Brevard. West will travel to Pisgah on Friday.
Summaries
BOYS
NORTH (41) — Brunelle 8, Lamb, Norton, Lancaster, Colby Drake 16, Roberts 1, Pruitt 2, Searcy 2, Lytle, May, Duckett 4, Morgan 4, Brackett, Brown 4.
WEST (78) — Embler 3, Thelen, Keenan Young 13, Roberts 5, Williams 3, Shaw 4, Reeves 4, Adam Troutman 13, Kevin Thomas 13, Daniel Hyatt 18, VanWingerden 2.
Halftime: West, 49-19.
GIRLS
NORTH (46) — Sydney Lyda 11, Jodi Edwards 10, Ashley Brown 11, Hartley 8, Israel 6, Dalton.
WEST (51) — Summer Kremer 10, Erica Cantrell 11, Burton 8, Turlington, Bishop 9, Stewart, Ciaramitaro, Ashley Rogers 13, Dinardo.
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