By Johnny Sanders, Sports Editor
SPRINGVILLE – Friday night, the Springville hosted a scrappy Locust Fork team that gave the lady Tigers all they wanted before the home team took over in the fourth and finished off the Lady Hornets in a 12-point win.
Springville started the game off by outscoring the Hornets by just 2 points. The Tigers scored 10 points to Locust Fork’s 8. Bella Bullington would begin her night with 6 of Springville’s 10 points in the first quarter. Abby Byrd and Ava Vaughn had 2 points each for the Tigers.
The Tigers would open the gap a little more in the second quarter, doubling up Locust Fork 12-6 for the period. Bullington would not score in the quarter, but teammate Olivia Carroll would score 7 of the 12 to help put her team up 22-14 heading into halftime.
Locust Fork would not go away though, coming out of the locker room and finding success from behind the three-point line, hitting 3 three-point shots in the quarter, even taking the lead for the first time at the 2:51 mark, going up 27-26. The lead would be short-lived as Springville would answer and never trail Locust Fork again. For the quarter, the Hornets outscored Springville 13-8, narrowing the gap to just 3 points at 30-27 heading into the fourth quarter. Bullington had half of Springville’s points for the third period.
In the fourth, Springville would impose their will on the offensive side of the ball and have their highest point total of the night. 6 different players would get points on the board for the Tigers in the final stanza of the game. Byrd would have 6 of those points to go with 4 from Farrah Hawkins. The Tigers would finish with a 48-36 victory over the visiting Hornets.
On the night, Abby Byrd led all Tiger scorers with 13 points. Bella Bullington and Olivia Carroll added 12 points each for Springville.
“We didn’t play bad. We did a good job rebounding the ball after the first couple of minutes,” said Springville Coach Warren House. “We slowed down their three-point shooting for the most part. We got some play out of some players that we haven’t necessarily gotten out of some players yet this season. When we played at Locust Fork, Farrah (Hawkins) had 35 points. Tonight, she had 4. She got in foul trouble. But other girls picked up the slack and did more than what they’ve done so far. Olivia, Bella and Abby don’t normally do it all on the same night. It was good to see those 3 step up. They had 36 of our 48 points.”
Springville will open up play in the St. Clair County Tournament Monday night against Ashville in the first round. The first round will be played at Ragland High School.