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Lockdown: Horn girls hold Rockwall scoreless from the field in second half to rally for win
By DEVIN HASSON, dhasson@starlocalnews.com
Horn entered Tuesday's showdown with Rockwall with plenty of confidence.
Even when the Jaguars' open shots were not falling in the first half, they never panicked, despite digging a nine-point hole.
Horn trusted in its backbone--its defense--to come to the rescue and it responded with one of the most dominant efforts of the season.
Horn (18-6) improves to 6-1 in 12-5A and remains tied for first place with Mesquite, who defeated Longview on Tuesday. The Yellow Jackets (19-8) fall out of the three-way tie as they drop to 5-2 in district play.
"Defense is what we talk about and it is what we buy into and they just really stepped it up and took it to heart in the second half," Horn head coach Kasie Brewer said. "We didn't do anything different, we just dug a little deeper."
Although this was just one district game, it was not just an ordinary win. In addition to its impact on the district standings, the Jaguars also avenged their only 12-5A loss and kept their perfect home record intact.
It was also special for Brewer, who was an assistant at Rockwall who left after last season's Class 4A state runner-up finish to take over the Horn program.
"It is huge. I was at Rockwall for five years and this is my first head coaching job so it is big for me, but it is huge for these girls because it has been a while since Horn has won a district championship and that is one of the goals they set," Brewer said. "Also, we hadn't lost at home all year and they take a lot of pride in that, so it was really exciting to see the way they were able to come back and keep that going."
Aside from the defense, the other key to the comeback in the second half was made clear in the opening minutes after intermission.
Rockwall had controlled the rebounding battle in opening a 26-17 halftime lead, but Horn flipped the script in the third quarter, as Victoria Youman, Lauren Bradshaw and Jada Underwood all scored second-chance points as part of a 6-0 run to close to within 26-23 and set the tone for the rest of the game.
"That's been in our game plan since day one, the boards are huge for us to be successful," Brewer said. "At halftime, we made some adjustments to have all the areas covered. In the first half, we were crashing but we were going to the same spot and leaving some openings, so we just needed to spread out and get everything covered. We don't want to be a one-shot team."
Despite the improvements, Horn still trailed 29-25 at the end of three quarters, but the offense finally caught up with the other phases of the game in the fourth.
Tyler Hamilton gave the Jaguars their first lead since it was 4-2 when she knocked down a 3-pointer that made it 31-29 and Bradshaw and Underwood added baskets inside to push the advantage to six.
The Yellow Jackets got back to within 35-31 after a pair of free throws from Sara Williamson with 2:12 left, but the Jaguars put it away from there, as Yeoman and Underwood scored inside and Bradshaw knocked down a pair of free throws to cap a 16-2 run to close the game.
Underwood and Kristina Smith had nine points each to lead Horn, with Bradshaw adding eight. Williamson scored 11 points and Morghen Day had nine for the Yellow Jackets.
Smith scored all of her points in the first half and the Jaguars needed every one of them to stay close. Her 3-pointer brought Horn to within 12-11 in the first quarter and Dawn Nwoko added a basket to again cut the deficit to a point, but Ellen Baker hit three free throws for Rockwall to give them a 17-13 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Yellow Jackets began to take control in the second quarter, as Baker drained a trey and Megan Grandy scored to give them their largest lead at 22-13. Horn finally got baskets from Smith and Underwood, but Day answered with a pair of scores of her own to make it 26-17 at halftime.
It looked bleak for the Jaguars at that point, but the stage was set for their biggest comeback of the season.
Horn has little time to celebrate, as it must now turn its attention to red-hot Mesquite. With the exception of their 46-41 loss to Horn, the Skeeters have blasted all other district opponents by an average of 31 points per game.
This time, Mesquite will have home court advantage with the winner of the game gaining the inside track on the 12-5A championship.
"This is a big week for us," Brewer said. "We came in with a three-way tie for first place and we play both of those teams back-to-back. Our phrase right now is 'All-In' because that is how these kids are treating it, they are going all in, leaving everything out there and working hard every day to be ready. This was a big one, and we're one step closer and now we have to be ready again."
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