By Johnny Sanders, Sports Editor
TRUSSVILLE – It is most certainly postseason basketball time in Trussville, Alabama and Tonya Hunter’s Lady Huskies are on a mission, not just to win an area championship, but to possibly prove that they are right up there with top tier in 7A ladies basketball and they have done just that all year.
Thursday night was no exception as the Lady Huskies welcomed in the Chelsea Hornets for the 7A Area 6 championship game. Despite missing one of their best players in April Hooks and seeing Audre Benson getting in early foul trouble, the Huskies were able to depend on some others to step up in the game and help them get the win and the area championship, 46-37 at Bryant Bank Arena.
The Huskies jumped out to a 7-1 lead to start the first quarter, but Chelsea called a time out and rallied the troops to make it competitive. Audre Benson got 2 quick fouls in the first quarter and had to come out of the game for a bit. Hewitt would outscore the Hornets 12-8 in the first period of play. Sara Phillips would lead the Huskies with 7 points to start the game, paired with 3 from Deandrea Powell.
The second quarter would be a tight one. Hewitt would score 14 points on the offensive side of the ball, but the tenacious defense of the first quarter would slip a bit and allow the Hornets to come within a point of them by scoring 13 in the quarter. Jordan Hunter would begin to heat up in the second by scoring 8 of their 13 points to go with a pair of three-pointers from Phillips and Powell respectively. Hewitt would head into the break with a narrow 26-21 lead.
That tenacious Husky defense would rear its head again in the third quarter, smothering the Hornets and only allowing them to score 4 points. Meanwhile, on offense, Hewitt would score 11 of their own. Hunter would once again lead all scorers for the period with 5, but the threes kept falling as Powell hit another one in the third and Lilly Gray got in on the fun by hitting one of her own. 37-25 would be the score going into the final quarter of the game and the Huskies could smell victory.
Chelsea would start the final period of the game with a 7-1 run on the Husky defense to get the game to within 6 points, but that would be as close as they got, despite outscoring Hewitt 12-9 in the quarter. Benson would get to the charity stripe a couple of times, despite her own foul trouble in the game, and help out her team with 5 points while Hunter added the other 4 of Hewitt’s points, all from the foul line as well.
Jordan Hunter ended the night with 19 points for the Huskies to go with 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 6 steals and a blocked shot. Sara Phillips would add 10 points with 4 rebounds and 1 assist.
“The last 10 days, we’ve had so many girls step up and execute what we are trying to do. They are doing a heck of a job executing. We are so much better defensively than we were even 6 days ago,” said Hewitt coach Tonya Hunter. “Every opportunity we get, we look to get better. We are going to work more on defensive assignments that we need to take care of and move the ball a little bit better.”
On the area championship, Coach Hunter said, “This is so great. We haven’t won one since 2018 and for these Seniors, it is fantastic to get that.”