Lady Hawks get second win over HTC

FORT MADISON — Taylor Hickey was losing her voice at halftime, but she still made sure the message got through to the Central Lee girls basketball team.
“They just needed to play hard and play controlled,” the Hawks’ coach said.
Her team listened, rallying in the second half for a 48-38 win over Holy Trinity on Friday at Shottenkirk Gym.
Central Lee (5-4 overall, 5-3 SEISC South Division) gave up a 7-0 run to start the game and trailed 25-24 at halftime before putting things together in the second half. The Hawks held the Crusaders (2-8, 2-6) to just four points in the third quarter.
“They didn't do anything different,” Holy Trinity coach Shawn Hopper said. “I felt we just let it bother us more, and we just seemed to be confused on offense and I thought that was the difference.”
The Hawks got momentum near the end of the first half on three 3-pointers from junior Nora Lampe, then Kenna Sandoval took over inside in the second half. Sandoval, who had 20 points, scored 10 in the third quarter.
“If Nora doesn’t hit those shots, it’s probably a different game,” Hickey said. “Kenna played a heck of a game. I told her in the second quarter she needed to get everyone playing as hard as she does.”
“We knew we needed to keep the ball out of Kenna’s hands, and we didn’t do it,” Hopper said. “That was the difference. And those threes really hurt as well.”

The Crusaders stayed within single digits in the second half, and trailed 43-38 with 1:55 to play. But Central Lee’s Taylor Jones clinched the win by scoring the Hawks’ final five points.
“She’s been kind of second-guessing herself lately, so she needed a game like this,” Hickey said of Jones, who finished with nine points.
Lampe finished with 15 points.
Hopper was impressed with the game played by freshman Makayla Simpson, who had 15 points, all in the first half. Simpson had 11 points in the first quarter, which was important given that junior Adalyn Kruse, the Crusaders’ leading scorer this season, picked up two fouls in the quarter and sat out the rest of the half.
“She played tonight like we knew she was capable of,” Hopper said of Simpson, who had scored just 22 points in the first seven games. “She's a freshman that hasn’t played in a lot of basketball games. But you can see the athleticism. She's just raw. When she gets experience, everybody better be on notice, because she's a player.”
Kruse had 10 points. Elizabeth Griffin added eight for the Crusaders.
Hopper said the Crusaders have made progress since the season-opening 37-23 loss to the Hawks in early December.
“It’s hard to see the success when you're seeing the L's in the win-loss column,” Hopper said. “We gave one away last night (a 34-24 loss at WACO). Missed 19 free throws, lose by nine, so it was a long day going over all that stuff in my head. But I think these girls are poised to break out at some point.”