By Bobby Mathews, Sports Editor
LEEDS — The Hewitt-Trussville Huskies took it to the Green Wave here Thursday night, bringing home an 84-21 victory.
The Huskies were paced by Audre Benson, who had 19 points. Jordan Hunter added 13, while Sara Phillips had 11.
Early on, it looked like it might be a tighter game, as Hewitt-Trussville failed to find the basket for the first three possessions. Zoie Galloway banged home a three-pointer for the Green Wave to give Leeds its first lead of the night with 5:58 left in the first quarter.
Leeds went up 5-4, but after that it was all Hewitt-Trussville.
In rapid succession, Hunter broke away and scored. On the next possession, Benson hit a layup to take the lead, 4-3. April Hooks hit a three-pointer from the left-hand side of the court, and suddenly it was 9-5. Chrischandria James blocked a shot, hit an outlet pass to Abbie Kate Monski, who passed forward to Benson for an easy layup.
By the end of the first period, Hewitt-Trussville had things well in hand, leading 23-7.
Leeds’ Mikayla Jordan hit a three-point shot to make it 29-10 with 6:?15 left in the half, but Hewitt-Trussville stormed to a 46-10 halftime lead on the strength of Lilly Gray’s three-pointer at the buzzer. Gray had 7 points and was an active presence on the boards for the Huskies.
Phillips hit a trey as things began to get out of hand in the second half. Hewitt-Trussville was too strong for Leeds.
A play that was indicative of both teams’ effort: Galloway stepped in front of a Husky pass and streaked toward an open net. Benson ran her down from behind, catching up and batting the ball out of bounds to keep the Leeds senior from scoring. By the end of the third quarter it was 71-17, and Hewitt-Trussville put their second team in to cruise the rest of the way.